A Rapid Immunoblot Assay (western Blot) to Detect Specific Antibodies for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Schistosoma Mansoni, and Taenia Solium (Cysticercosis)

The introduction of the immunoblot into the repertoire of serodiagnostic assays began with the confirmatory testing of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibodies. The difficulty of producing immunoblot strips and the complexity of the time-consuming serum/conjugate incubation steps deterred more widespread use of the immunoblot. Using the simple Schleicher * Schuell AccutranTM system, can greatly reduce the complexity for strip production and incubation. By simply increasing reagent concentrations, we can reduce incubation times for sera and conjugates (enzyme-labeled second antibodies) to 5 minutes from the usual 1 hour or overnight incubation times. The resulting RAPID BLOT shows no reduction of sensitivity or specificity.