The advantage and adequacy of the mixed hemadsorption test for rabies antibody determination

The goal of rabies vaccination is an early development of protecting antibodies. The mixed hemadsorption (MH) test is shown to be an adequate test to evaluate the immunization response. It measures antibodies combining with antigens on rabies-infected cells equivalent to the glycoprotein antigen at the exterior of the budding virus (1). Further, the MH test used measures antibodies solely of IgG class, thus avoiding positive results being obtained by IgM antibodies which can be produced during a prolonged period because of antigen persistence due to daily immunization doses (2). Antibodies of IgM class may play only a minor role in the early defence against rabies as probably only antibodies of IgG class can reach a locally introduced virus and, so far, are the only immunoglobulins shown to induce immune lysis in rabies-infected cells (3). The MH test is described. It is a sensitive, reliable and technically convenient method as it has a capacity for testing many sera in the same run. Results obtained are compared with neutralization values obtained from different types of rabies vaccines (4).