Poliovirus-Binding Inhibition ELISA for Evaluation of Immune Response to Oral Poliovirus Vaccine: A Possible Alternative to the Neutralization Test

Abstract

This study describes an ELISA variant (Binding Inhibition ELISA, BI ELISA) for the quantitative determination of neutralization-relevant antibodies to polioviruses. The test differs from previously described analogs by utilizing polyclonal immune reagents: capture antibodies and biotin-labeled detecting antibodies. The BI ELISA was compared with the conventional neutralization test (NT) by testing live Sabin and wild-type poliovirus strains. The comparison of 68 serum samples taken from Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (OPV) recipients showed 100 % specificity and sensitivity for Sabin 1 and Sabin 2, and 100 % sensitivity and 97 % specificity for Sabin 3. Good correlations (r = 0.7, 0.77, 0.65 for Sabin 1, 2, 3, respectively) were demonstrated between the NT and BI ELISA results. These results indicate that the BI ELISA can be used as a reliable alternative to the NT for determination of neutralization-relevant antibodies to polioviruses in vaccinees and in large-scale sero-epidemiological studies.