Detection and Identification by Immune Electron Microscopy of Fastidious Agents Associated with Respiratory Illness, Acute Nonbacterial Gastroenteritis, and Hepatitis A

Kapikian, Albert Z.; Feinstone, Stephen M.; Purcell, Robert H.; Wyatt, Richard G.; Thornhill, Thomas S.; Kalica, Anthony R.; Chanock, Robert M.

This chapter discusses detection and identification by immune electron microscopy (IEM) of fastidious agents associated with respiratory illness, acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis, and hepatitis A. For Norwalk gastroenteritis and hepatitis A, the IEM technique enabled not only the definitive visualization and identification for the first time of virus-like particles from individuals with these diseases but also enabled researchers to demonstrate for the first time the serological association of an identifiable virus-like agent with each of these diseases. The chapter also explains that a mixture of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and anti-TMV rabbit serum resulted in aggregation of the virus particles, whereas by contrast, such aggregation did not occur when the virus reacted with a control normal rabbit serum. T. F. Anderson and W. M. Stanley demonstrated the electron-microscopic specificity of the reaction by observing the lack of such reactivity between TMV and rabbit antiserum to tomato bushy stunt virus; and between tomato bushy stunt virus and anti-TMV rabbit serum.