Comparison of in situ hybridization and immunologic staining with cytopathology for detection and identification of herpes simplex virus infection in cultured cells.

Two recently developed sensitive techniques, in situ hybridization with a biotinylated cloned DNA probe and an avidin-biotin complex immunoperoxidase assay, were compared with the appearance of cytopathic changes for the early detection of herpes simplex virus infection in cell culture. By using commercially made reagents, these detection methods were evaluated in two different cell culture systems inoculated with both high- and low-input multiplicity of virus. The results revealed that both viral antigen and viral DNA detection methods could shorten the time to diagnosis of herpes simplex virus infection in cell culture; however, these methods were most useful in specimens containing low titers of virus when a less sensitive cell system was used. In this study, the avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase method was more sensitive and much cheaper than hybridization with a biotinylated probe. Significantly, when a highly sensitive cell system was used, cytopathic changes alone were comparable in rapidity and sensitivity to viral antigen or DNA detection methods applied in a less sensitive cell system.