Enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA):
ELISA in its var io us modifications e.g. plate ELISA, sandwich ELISA, competitive ELISA, ELISA strip or immunostick, dot ELISA has proved to be a powerful tool in immunodiagnostics. This technique has been developed and applied against several viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases as a sensitive tool for the detection of antibody and or antigen. The technique is also useful to monitor the immune response to vaccination and serves as an index for the evaluation of immune status. Modern biotechnology techniques, like recombinant DNA, can be used to produce pure, highly specific antigens for such ELISA systems, which increase the specificity of the techniques and eliminate the need to grow large amounts of a potentially dangerous virus in laboratories requiring containment facilities.