A new solid phase radioimmunoassay (CLB-RIA) for the detection of hepatitis-B antigen and antibody

A new competitive solid phase radioimmunoassay (CLB-RIA) has been developed for the detection of HBAg and HBAb in human serum and plasma. In the assay, sheep antibodies to HBAg, covalently linked to an insoluble carrier, highly purified 125-I labelled HBAg and the serum or plasma sample are incubated for 20 h at room temperature. After incubation, the bound and the free fraction of the tracer are separated by centrifugation. Both the presence of HBAg and HBAb, result in a decrease of the amount of bound tracer, when compared with a negative control serum. Differentiation between HBAg and HBAb requires the use of another type of radioimmunoassay. For this purpose a sandwich solid phase radioimmunoassay, for the detection of HBAb only, has been developed (CLB-AURIA). In this, assay-purified HBAg is covalently linked to an insoluble carrier. Using a mixture of both immunosorbents (insolubilized HBAg and HBAb), it is possible to detect and to distinguish HBAg and HBAb in one single solid phase radioimmunoassay (CLB-MIRIA). The influence of three parameters on the CLB-RIA, the incubation time, the amount of tracer and the effect of Tween-20 has been studied. The sensitivity of the described solid phase CLB-RIA for the detection of HBAg is comparable to that of other radioimmunoassays reported in literature; its specificity is very high.