Small Virus Particles in Faeces of Patients with Infectious Hepatitis (Hepatitis A)

A radioimmunoassay for hepatitis A antigen and antibody.

“…More important is the fact that we have a test which automatically relates the antigen we find to the original MS-1 strain of hepatitis A described by Krugman et al (1959). We were able to confirm by this method that the viruses we described previously (Skidmore and Boxall, 1977) were serologically similar to MS-1 and that their density was 1-34 in caesium chloride. However, we have found by RIA minor peaks of antigen at other densities, which we had not detected by electron microscopy, presumably because of a lack of sensitivity.…”

“…Our previous work had been aimed at developing a rapid diagnostic test for hepatitis A based on the detection of viral antigen in the faeces (Skidmore and Tadros, 1976;Skidmore and Boxall, 1977). As a result of our investigations we had several series of faecal material which we were eager to investigate fully.…”

“…In a previous report we described the virus associated with hepatitis A as having a buoyant density of 1P34 in caesium chloride (Skidmore and Boxall, 1977).…”

“…For buoyant density determinations, faecal samples had to be further concentrated after the initial low-speed centrifugation (Skidmore and Boxall, 1977). The supernate from this spin was centrifuged at 7000 rev/min for 30 minutes in an MSE superspeed 65 centrifuge to deposit cellular debris, and the supernate from this second spin was then centrifuged at 50 000 rev/min for 2 hours.…”

“…In samples from some of our patients small virus particles resembling those of hepatitis A and reacting with anti-MSI serum obtained from the National Institutes of Health have been observed and described (Skidmore and Boxall, 1977). However, the interpretation of results has been particularly difficult since stool samples often contain many types of small particles, and no hepatitis A virus has been available for reference.…”