Effect of antigen coating conditions on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of immunoglobulin G antibody to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup Y and W135 capsular polysaccharide antigens in serum.

Human sera collected from 28 consenting adult volunteers were used to define assay conditions for meningococcal vaccine clinical trial serology. Immunoassay parameters were optimized with these test sera and the standard reference serum, CDC1992. Coating conditions for serogroup Y and W135 polysaccharide antigens were found to influence the predicted serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody concentrations. Sera that displayed IgG antibody binding profiles most unlike that of CDC1992 were influenced the most by coating conditions. Our results suggest that presentation of specific epitopes is influenced by antigen-coating concentrations for serogroup Y and W135 polysaccharides.