Monoclonal antibodies against herpes simplex viruses.

Hybridoma cell lines secreting monoclonal antibodies against HSV-1 and 2 have been produced. BAlb/c mice were immunized by footpad infection and boosted by i.v. injection of viral antigens extracted from virus infected BAlb/c fibroblasts. After fusion hybrid cells were screened for antibody production by ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence (IIF). In our hands, IIF had similar sensitivity and higher specificity than ELISA but was more time-consuming. Selected hybridomas have been characterized further for virus type-specificity with IIF and plaque reduction tests. Immunoprecipitation was performed with 3H or 35S-labelled from virus infected and mock-infected cells. About half of the antibodies produced precipitate viral proteins--most of them glycoproteins, especially gC and gD. As yet, 19 hybridomas have been cloned once or twice by limiting dilution. Preliminary results indicate that 3 HSV-1 specific, 1 HSV-2 specific and 4 groupspecific monoclonal antibodies are useful for identification and typing of HSV isolates by IIF. IFF is relatively rapid, sensitive and economical for this purpose.