Identification of Streptococcus sobrinus with monoclonal antibodies.

Identification of Streptococcus sobrinus is often difficult to perform because of the great resemblance of the organism to other oral streptococcal species. Therefore, monoclonal antibodies were prepared which were shown to be highly specific for S. sobrinus. Cross-reactivity with other oral microorganisms has not been observed in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an immunofluorescence assay. These monoclonal antibodies belonged to the subclass immunoglobulin G2b. To be certain that the strains used in cross-reactivity tests were S. sobrinus, their DNA base composition was measured as a golden standard. Additional tests like colony morphology and sugar fermentation with the API 20 Strep system (Analytab Products, Montalieu-Vercieu, France) were performed. These additional tests turned out to be necessary because 100% correct identification could not be obtained by separate tests. Immunological characterization with the clones OMVU10 and OMVU11 proved to be discriminative between S. sobrinus and other streptococcal species.