Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a monoclonal antibody for detecting group A meningococcal antigens in cerebrospinal fluid.

Hybridomas were produced from spleen cells of BALB/c mice immunized with a membrane preparation from Neisseria meningitidis group A strain 4402 and S194/5.XXOBU.14 myeloma cells. The hybridomas were screened for secretion of antibodies suitable for an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) diagnostic for group A meningococcal meningitis. One hybridoma antibody, 3G7, was directed against the pilus protein. This antibody bound to all six lipopolysaccharide and protein group A meningococcal serotyping strains, as well as to meningococcal strains from serogroups C, W135, and Y, but not to a strain of Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae type b, or to two or more strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Salmonella typhi. The ELISA used on antibody, antigen, antibody-conjugate sandwich. Rabbit anti-meningococcal serum was the coating antibody for the antibody sandwich, cerebrospinal fluids contained the bacterial antigens, and 3G7-alkaline phosphatase conjugate was the detecting antibody. The monoclonal antibody conjugate ELISA system was able to detect group A meningococcal antigens in 21 of 25 cerebrospinal fluid specimens that were positive in an immune rabbit serum conjugate ELISA; cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with Haemophilus meningitis served as the controls. Counterimmunoelectrophoresis detected meningococcal antigens in 16 of the same 25 cerebrospinal fluid samples.