SENSITIVE ONE-STEP ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY FOR HIV-1 P24 ANTIGEN IN HUMAN BLOOD SPECIMENS AND CELL-CULTURE SUPERNATANTS

An enzyme immunoassay (EIA) with a single incubation step has been developed to detect the HIV-1 major core polypeptide p24 in human blood specimens and in cell culture supernantants. In this assay, the solid phase is coated with monoclonal antibodies to p24, and the specimen is incubated simultaneously with peroxidase labelled polyclonal anti-HIV(Fab'). If HIV-1 p24 antigen is present in a specimen it will form a sandwich complex with the capture and tracer antibodies during the incubation step. The sensitivity of the assay for p24 antigen, 20 pg/ml, was equal to that of two commercial HIV antigen detection EIAs, when human blood specimens and virus isolation cell culture supernatants were analyzed. However, the assay described is simpler to perform than those previously reported, since only one incubation step is needed. Moreover this assay minimizes the handling of material containing potentially infectious HIV.