Comparison of biological, biochemical, immunological, and immunochemical techniques for typing herpes simplex virus isolates.

In this study, 102 herpes simplex virus isolates were typed by cell culture selection (chicken embryo cells and guinea pig embryo cells [CE/GPE]), (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine (BVDU) sensitivity, plaque reduction neutralization, and indirect immunofluorescence staining techniques. The percentages of agreement between the typing methods were as follows: BVDU sensitivity versus CE/GPE, 99% (99/102); CE/GPE and BVDU sensitivity versus neutralization, 32% (33/102); CE/GPE and BVDU sensitivity versus indirect immunofluorescence staining 17% (17/102). Results were easy to interpret when the CE/GPE and BVDU sensitivity systems were used. In contrast, when type-specific antisera prepared commercially were used, results were often obscure, even contradictory, because of antibody cross-reactions. Therefore, this study suggests that immunological and immunochemical methods that use presently available commercially prepared antisera cannot reliably differentiate herpes simplex virus type 1 from type 2.