Fluorescent-antibody studies with antisera against heated and unheated poliovirus type 1.

Fluorescent-antibody (FA) reagents were prepared from sera of guinea pigs immunized with either native infectious poliovirus type 1 or poliovirus type 1 which had been heated at 56 C for 30 min. Conjugates made from sera of animals immunized with heated virus gave higher direct FA staining titers on air-dried, acetone-fixed, infected cells than conjugates made from sera of animals immunized with native infectious virus. Evidence was obtained that complement-fixing antibody reactive with heated antigen was responsible for the FA staining. Two conjugates prepared from sera of guinea pigs immunized with heated poliovirus type 1 were successfully used to identify 21 type 1 viruses isolated from a group of 44 stool suspensions studied as unknowns. These conjugates did not stain any of 23 heterologous enteroviruses present in the remainder of the stools and gave minimal non-specific staining.