ABSTRACT
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) introduced for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxins by Saunders et al., Simon and Terplan, and ourselves has proved to be a simple, reliable, and sensitive test. A new modification is described that uses polystyrene balls (diameter, 6 mm) coated individually with antibody against one of the toxins A, B, or C. In a single tube, 20 ml of the food extract was incubated with the three balls differently stained, which were then each tested for the uptake of enterotoxin by a competitive ELISA. A concentration of 0.1 ng or less of enterotoxin per ml can be measured, making tedious concentration procedures of the extracts superfluous. Culture supernatants and extracts from foods artificially or naturally contaminated with toxin were successfully examined. Cross-reactions did not occur, and nonspecific interfering substances did not create serious problems.
Subject(s)
Enterotoxins/analysis , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/methods , Food Contamination/analysis , Immunoenzyme Techniques/methods , Staphylococcus aureus/analysisABSTRACT
An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the detection and measurement of human tetanus antitoxin. This simple test has proved to be a simple and sensitive as the radio immunosorbent test (RIST) described earlier by the authors and needs no special equipment. The technique which is based on the pioneer work done by Eva Engvall, is described. The antitoxin titers obtained with ELISA and RIST are comparable.
Subject(s)
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/methods , Immunoenzyme Techniques/methods , Tetanus Antitoxin/analysis , Antibody Formation , Hemagglutination , Humans , Immune Sera , Radioimmunosorbent Test/methods , Tetanus/immunologyABSTRACT
A radioimmunological assay method has been developed for large-scale screening for tetanus antibodies. Its specificity is excellent and the sensitivity is in the region of 0.001 International Units per ml; it is thus comparable with the animal protective test. By this method a series of human sera was examined for which the vaccinal antitoxin titers were determined by animal protection tests. A parallel between the two tests was confirmed. Screening of 60 military recruits established that the test is usable as a mass method. Furthermore, the technique of Habermann and Wiegand was compared with ours and the results correlated well.
