Several different methods have been developed to quantitate neutralizing antibody responses to human papillomaviruses (HPVs), including in vivo neutralization assays, in vitro pseudoneutralization assays, competitive radioimmunoassays (cRIAs), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. However, each of these techniques possesses one or more limitations that preclude testing large numbers of patient sera for use in natural history studies and large vaccine clinical trials. We describe here a new multiplexed assay, by using the Luminex Laboratory MultiAnalyte Profiling (LabMAP3) assay system, that can simultaneously quantitate neutralizing antibodies to human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in 50 l of serum. The HPV-Luminex competitive immunoassay measures titers of polyclonal antibodies in serum capable of displacing phycoerythrin-labeled detection monoclonal antibodies binding to conformationally sensitive, neutralizing epitopes on the respective virus-like particles. This competitive Luminex immunoassay was found to be as sensitive, accurate, and precise as the currently used cRIAs. An effective HPV vaccine will most likely require several distinct genotypes to protect against multiple cancer causing papillomaviruses. The HPV-Luminex immunoassay should prove to be a useful tool in simultaneously quantitating antibody immune responses to multiple HPV genotypes for natural history infection studies and for monitoring the efficacy of prospective vaccines.

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A competitive enzyme immunoassay for the quantification of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil and water was developed utilizing amine-terminated superparamagnetic particles as the solid phase. Aroclor 1254 was covalently attached to a bovine serum albumin carrier, and the resulting PCB−protein conjugate was used to immunize rabbits and to produce polyclonal antibodies with reactivity to a broad range of PCBs. Specificity studies indicate that the polyclonal antibody can detect Aroclors 1016, 1232, 1242, 1248, 1254, 1260, 1262, and 1268. The immunoassay has a estimated detection limit of 0.2 ppb (ng/mL) in water and 0.5 ppm (mg/kg) in soil based on Aroclor 1254. The assay compares favorably to GC method 8080 results when soil (r = 0.960) or water samples are evaluated (r = 0.909). The typical within assay % CV is less than 9% in water samples, and recovery studies averaged 99% in water and 85% in soil using a 1-min extraction. This immunochemical method provides quantitative field or laboratory screening results for characterizing and delineating PCB-contaminated sites.

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