10th anniversary of the National Reference Laboratory on AIDS in the Czech Republic.

National Reference Laboratory on AIDS (NRL AIDS) was established in the National Institute of Public Health by the Ministry of Health in the late 1985. At that time the existence of HIV/AIDS and the potencial spread of this infection/disease even in a socialistic country has been officially recognized. The main tasks of NRL AIDS were and still are the laboratory diagnostic, epidemiology and research of HIV/AIDS.

[Cultivation of HIV-1 virus on mononuclear peripheral blood cells of HIV-1 seropositive individuals].

Using the method of co-cultivation with phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes from healthy donors, the author isolated the HIV-1 virus from peripheral mononuclear blood cells of three patients with the AIDS symptomatology and one patient with the ARC symptomatology. The presence of the virus in infected cells was proved by detection of the viral antigen p 24 in enzymatic immunoassays and in the immunofluorescence test. Three of the isolated strains were adapted to sensitive continual tissue cultures, where the isolates caused chronic infection of the cells associated with the development of a cytopathic effect.

[Detection of HIV infection using the immunofluorescence test].

The author examined, using the immunofluorescence test, 107 ant HIV positive sera and 114 sera with false reactions in the ELISA test. He proved a high sensitivity and specificity of the immunofluorescence test in the detection of anti-HIV antibodies, comparable with Western-blot's technique and he established the value of the immunofluorescence test for the identification of the virus antigen on isolation of the virus from HIV infected patients.

[Dynamics of the antibody response and p24 antigenemia in HIV-1 infected individuals in Czechoslovakia].

In a group of 83 anti HIV-1 positive subjects the antibody response against different structural viral proteins was investigated concurrently with assessment of p 24 antigenaemia. Disappearance of antibodies against the capsidal antigen p 24 was recorded in 12% of 42 patients with ARC and AIDS. On the other hand, these antibodies persisted in all 41 asymptomatic infections throughout the three-year investigation period.

[Microbiological diagnosis of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus].

The author describes and evaluates different approaches in laboratory diagnosis of HIV infection and AIDS. Serological detection of anti-HIV antibodies provides despite some limitations very good diagnostic opportunities. ELISA screening tests supplemented by confirming tests, in particular the Western blot, ensure maximum accuracy of the obtained results.