Hemagglutination inhibition assays for the evaluation of seasonal influenza vaccines

Abstract

Disclosed are methods for detecting if a biological sample (e.g., saliva, serum, blood, plasma) contains antibodies that inhibit influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein hemagglutination activity. The method includes reducing or removing non-specific inhibitors of HA from the biological sample to produce a treated sample; exposing the treated sample to an influenza virus having an HA glycoprotein to produce a sample-virus mixture; incubating the sample-virus mixture with human red blood cells (RBCs), the human RBCs being at a concentration of about 0.5% to about 1%; and detecting agglutination of the human RBCs. Assay kits and methods for using the assay to select an immunogenic composition for use as a vaccine are also provided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.