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. 2018 Aug 6;36(32Part A):4792–4799. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.11.089

Table 2.

Three main assay types used in monitoring HPV vaccine immunogenicity and their advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages Disadvantages
Neutralization assay
  • Measures function closest to presumed mechanism of protection

  • All immunoglobulin classes are detected

  • Requires pseudovirions for each type

  • Requires cell culture and time for cells to grow

  • Time-consuming and labor intensive

  • Limited ability to multiplex

  • Higher coefficients of variation





Competitive immunoassay
  • Detects neutralizing antibodies

  • Easily multiplexed with bead arrays (e.g. Luminex)

  • Rapid, high throughput

  • All immunoglobulin classes detected

  • Only a subset of total neutralizing antibodies detected

  • Requires type-specific neutralizing monoclonal antibodies

  • Mulitplexing requires compromise between selecting dominant epitope and retaining type specificity





Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay
  • Fast, high throughput

  • Familiar assay format

  • Amenable to multiplexing (bead arrays or multispot wells)

  • Detects one immunoglobulin class (IgG or IgA), determined by secondary antibody

  • Non-neutralizing binding antibodies can be detected