Radioimmunoassay techniques for detecting naturally occurring viral antibody in human sera

Virus infected, fixed, replicate monolayer cell cultures can be pre-tested, stored, then withdrawn for use in the radioimmunoassay (RIA) as solid phase viral antigens. Ready availability of uniform, potent viral antigens permits quantitative determination of viral antibody concentrations simply, rapidly and precisely. Where cell destruction by cytolytic viruses might prevent in situ fixation of cell monolayers, a rapid and simple RIA procedure is described which utilizes imitation pearls as antigen adsorbents.