What is hELISA?

hELISA refers to hemagglutination inhibition assay-based ELISA. It's a modified ELISA technique that incorporates a hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay step. The hemagglutination inhibition assay is a method used to quantify the amount of antibody present in a sample that can prevent a virus (or other agent) from binding to and agglutinating red blood cells. By combining this with ELISA techniques, hELISA can offer enhanced sensitivity and specificity in detecting and quantifying specific antibodies, particularly those that exhibit hemagglutination inhibition activity. It's commonly used in virology and immunology research and diagnostics, for example, in influenza serology.