The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 94, 123-137,
Copyright, 1951, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York
A SPECIFIC COMPLEMENT-FIXATION TEST FOR INFECTION WITH POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS
Jordi Casals M.D.1,
Peter K. Olitsky M.D.1, and
Ralph O. Anslow D.V.M. Major1
1 From The Laboratories of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
A complement-fixing antigen has been developed, using as source of material CNS tissue from newborn mice infected with the newborn mouse-adapted strain of the Lansing type, MEF1 virus. With this antigen, specific reactions have been obtained with sera from mice, cotton rats, and monkeys immunized with the Lansing-type virus, and from monkeys and chimpanzees convalescent from infection with this virus.
Twenty-one of 35 human sera obtained from individuals convalescent from poliomyelitis were positive and 6 of 22 from apparently normal persons having Lansing-neutralizing antibody, while this held true for only 1 of 19 from those having no Lansing-neutralizing antibody.
The fact that positive results were found in sera from patients having an infection with poliomyelitis virus of the Brunhilde type and at the same time no Lansing-neutralizing antibody brings up the possibility of the existence of a cross-reaction in complement fixation between the two types.
Submitted on May 18, 1951