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Background: Virus neutralizing antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are considered important correlates of protection for vaccine evaluation. The established plaque reduction assay is time consuming, labor intensive and highly variable. Methods: Here, a neutralization assay based on a modified RSV strain expressing the green fluorescent protein in combination with automated detection and quantification of plaques is described. Results: The fluorescence plaque reduction assay in microplate format requires only two days to complete and is simple and reproducible. A good correlation between visual and automated counting methods to determine RSV neutralizing serum antibody titers was observed. Conclusions: The developed virus neutralization assay is suitable for high-throughput testing and can be used for both animal studies and (large scale) vaccine clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunoassays composed of screening and confirmation are the established algorithm to confirm HIV infection in China, with a Western blot result as the final diagnosis. Case presentation: In this report, three late-stage AIDS patients were initially tested HIV antibody positive using multiple screening kits, but tested indeterminate using Western blot. HIV infection diagnosis was confirmed based on nucleic acid assays, clinic manifestations and epidemiological history. Case A was identified positive at 30 months, using Western blot, Case B at 8 months, and case C remained indeterminate until he died of Kaposi's sarcoma 4 months after HAART. Conclusion: The report indicates that current antibody-based testing algorithms may miss late-stage AIDS patients and therefore miss the opportunity for preventing these cases from further transmission. The report also implies that viral load assays is not easy to be universely applicated in developing country like China although it is helpful in diagnosing complicated cases of HIV infection, so the counselling before and after testing is imperative to the diagnosis of HIV infection and risk behavior survey on the examinee should be as detailed as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]