Solid-phase radioimmunoassay of IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies to human rotavirus

A solid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) has been developed for the detection of human rotavirus-specific IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies. Nebraska calf diarrhea virus grown in LLC-MK2 cell cultures in the presence of trypsin was directly adsorbed onto polystyrene balls, and antibodies that attached to the virus-coated balls were detected by subsequent binding of 125I-labeled antibodies specific to human alpha, gamma or mu chains of human Iga, IgG, or IgM immunoglobulins. A total of 116 serum specimens from 58 adult patients were tested. Binding ratios between the positive and the negative serum varied between 5 and 15, occasionally being 20 or more in the IgA and IgG assays, but rarely exceeding 3 in the IgM assay. The RIA was found to be more sensitive in detecting antibodies to rotavirus than the complement fixation (CF) test, the RIA titers obtained being 50--100 times as high as the CF titers. The method described offers a possibility of evaluating the immune response to human rotavirus and of detecting recent infection.