Heterophilic interference in specimens yielding false-reactive results on the Abbott 4th generation ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay

•Heterophilic interference may cause false reactive results on HIV EIA assays.•The Abbott ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay is more prone to false reactive results.•Heterophilic blocking reagents can decrease the false reactive signal.•Resolution of specimens with false-reactivity increases confirmato...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical virology 2018-07, Vol.104, p.23-28
Main Authors: Lavoie, S., Caswell, D., Gill, M.J., Kadkhoda, K., Charlton, C.L., Levett, P.N., Hatchette, T., Garceau, R., Maregmen, J., Mazzulli, T., Needle, R., Kadivar, K., Kim, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
4th generation EIA
Abbott ARCHITECT
Antibodies, Heterophile - blood
Combo
False Positive Reactions
False reactive
Heterophilic
HIV
HIV Antibodies - blood
HIV Antigens - blood
HIV Infections - diagnosis
HIV-1 - immunology
HIV-2 - immunology
Humans
Immunoassay - methods
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Summary:•Heterophilic interference may cause false reactive results on HIV EIA assays.•The Abbott ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay is more prone to false reactive results.•Heterophilic blocking reagents can decrease the false reactive signal.•Resolution of specimens with false-reactivity increases confirmatory testing. False-reactivity in HIV-negative specimens has been detected in HIV fourth-generation antigen/antibody or ‘combo’ assays which are able to detect both anti-HIV-1/HIV-2 antibodies and HIV-1 antigen. We sought to characterize these specimens and determine the effect of heterophilic interference. Specimens previously testing as false-reactive on the Abbott ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab combo assay and re-tested on a different (Siemens ADVIA Centaur HIV Ag/Ab) assay. A subset of these specimens were also pre-treated with heterophilic blocking agents and re-tested on the Abbott assay. Here we report that 95% (252/264) of clinical specimens that were repeatedly reactive on the Abbott ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab combo assay (S/Co range, 0.94–678) were negative when re-tested on a different fourth generation HIV combo assay (Siemens ADVIA Centaur HIV Ag/Ab). All 264 samples were subsequently confirmed to be HIV negative. On a small subset (57) of specimens with available volume, pre-treatment with two different reagents (HBT; Heterophilic Blocking Tube, NABT; Non-Specific Blocking Tube) designed to block heterophilic antibody interference either eliminated (HBT) or reduced (NABT) the false reactivity when re-tested on the ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab combo assay. Our results suggest that the Abbott ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab combo assay can be prone to heterophilic antibody interference.
ISSN:1386-6532
1873-5967
DOI:10.1016/j.jcv.2018.03.014