Production of monospecific antibodies to varicella zoster virus antigen in rabbits tolerant to human IgG and immunized with antigen immunoprecipitated with human IgG from zoster reconvalescent sera.

A method for production of antisera specific to a single antigen of a human infectious agent is described with varicella zoster virus (VZV) as a model. Microisolation of immunochemically pure antigen contained in defined immunoprecipitates was achieved by crossed immunoelectrophoresis of a crude antigenic preparation (detergent solubilized, VZV infected cells) into agarose gel containing zoster reconvalescent immunoglobulin. Immunization of rabbits made tolerant to human IgG with immunoprecipitates resulted in the production of antibodies to the antigen part of the immunoprecipitate. The method represents a short cut to the production of heterologous diagnostic antisera to defined antigens of human infectious agents.