Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays adapted for serotyping of human rotavirus strains

Five enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay systems were adapted for serotyping human rotavirus strains and were compared with a sensitive complement fixation test in terms of specificity and sensitivity. The assays differed mainly with regard to the antibody systems involved in the double sandwich. Serotype differentiation of 34 rotavirus strains was achieved by determining a neutralization endpoint titer, either with a constant antiserum-varying antigen dilution method or vice versa. The procedure which proved to be highly specific and sensitive was one with two type-specific hyperimmune sera (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system 5) instead of only one, as in the four other systems.