Use of recombinant glycoprotein antigens gB and gH for diagnosis of primary human cytomegalovirus infection during pregnancy

Abstract

The major risk factor for intrauterine transmission of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a primary infection during pregnancy. The neutralizing antibody response appeared after an average of 13 weeks after seroconversion and therefore the absence of neutralizing titers in HCMV IgG positive pregnant women is a reliable marker for primary infection. Determination of neutralizing antibody, however, is time-consuming and labor-intensive. For this reason an immunoblot assay for detection of neutralizing antibodies was developed based on the use of recombinant antigens representing neutralizing epitopes of glycoproteins (gp) gB (gpUL55) and gH (gpUL75) of HCMV. In this study, 93.6% of sera of pregnant women with prior infection recognized the gp-specific epitopes corresponding to a nonresponder rate of 6.4% relative to the neutralizing antibody. In primary infection the gp-response in general coincided with the appearance of neutralizing antibody. Intriguingly, lack of HCMV gB-specific antibodies was correlated with a lower risk of intrauterine fetal infection (P < 0.05). J. Med. Virol. 63:135–145, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.