A Rapid Method for Demonstration of Precipitating Antibody against Influenza Virus by Counterimmunoelectrophoresis

Abstract

After freezing and thawing, an extract prepared from rhesus monkey kidney cells infected with influenza A2 virus yielded a precipitin line on counterimmunoelectrophoresis with antiserum to influenza virus. Active extracts of tissue contained complement-fixing antigen and retained their activity after viral hemagglutinin was removed by absorption with chicken erythrocytes. Precipitin lines were frequently detected with sera from patients with serologically diagnosed influenza infection but were infrequent when the serum was obtained one month after vaccination. Counterimmunoelectrophoresis provides a means for detecting influenza antigen or antibodies to influenza virus within 30 min.