Prevalence of anti‐human respiratory syncytial virus antibodies over three consecutive years in a healthy adult population

Abstract

The titers of anti-human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) antibodies have been measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a cohort of healthy adult volunteers over 3 consecutive years. Significant increases in the level of these antibodies were detected in a small percentage of individuals (3-3.3%), when paired serum samples taken from two consecutive seasons were compared. In these cases, a significant increase was generally noted in the level of antibodies directed against either the F or the G glycoproteins, and in the level of neutralizing antibodies. However, no correlation was found between the level of binding and neutralizing antibodies, when samples representative of the population under study were analyzed. These results indicate some level of infection by HRSV in the adult population. The implications of these results for the epidemiology of HRSV are discussed.

Association of chronic alcohol consumption and increased susceptibility to and pathogenic effects of pulmonary infection with respiratory syncytial virus in mice

“…Although most infections occur in children, RSV also infects immunocompetent adults, producing mild "cold-like" infections, which has been suggested to be an important source of primary infections of children (Hall, 2000(Hall, , 2001. These findings also support the concept that immunity to RSV is not total or lifelong and declines with age (Chala et al, 2003;de Bree et al, 2005;Mejias et al, 2005;Openshaw, 2005;Sethi and Murphy, 2005;Shlaes, 2000;Falsey, 2004a, 2004b;Walsh et al, 2004). This has been suggested to be the result of poor immunogenicity of RSV and, in some cases, production of a T helper cell subtype 2 (T H 2) immune response (Bukreyev et al, 2005;Hussell et al, 1996;Walsh and Falsey, 2004a;Waris et al, 1996).…”

“…First, and most important, there is a large body of data that convincingly shows that pulmonary infections of mice faithfully reproduce infections of human beings (Jafri et al, 2004). Of importance are epidemiologic studies, whose results show that adults are susceptible to reinfection with this virus because of a proposed decay in the immunity induced in the primary infection and the relatively poor immunogenicity of RSV (Chala et al, 2003;de Bree et al, 2005;Mejias et al, 2005;Sethi and Murphy, 2005;Shlaes, 2000;Falsey, 2004a, 2004b;Walsh et al, 2004). It has also been shown that adults with compromised immune function, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease, all of which have been associated with alcohol abuse, are more susceptible to pathogenic infections with RSV (Anaissie et al, 2004;Ebbert and Limper, 2005;Mejias et al, 2005;Walsh et al, 2004).…”

“…Together, the totality of risk factors for severe RSV infection is consistent with the findings of de Roux et al (2006), which show that infections with respiratory viruses, including RSV, are important in the community-acquired pneumonia associated with alcohol abuse. One important characteristic of RSV infection is production of a robust T H 2-type immune response when the innate immune response is altered, and the T H 2 immune response to RSV has been implicated in the development of asthma and chronic pulmonary inflammation (Chala et al, 2003;de Bree et al, 2005;Mejias et al, 2005;Openshaw, 2005;Sethi and Murphy, 2005;Shlaes, 2000;Falsey, 2004a, 2004b;Walsh et al, 2004). It has also been shown that there are several immunodominant viral proteins and, specifically, that the response to the G protein skews the pulmonary immune response to a strong T H 2 response and fails to induce an antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell response, which is necessary for viral clearance (Bukreyev et al, 2005;Hussell et al, 1996;Waris et al, 1996;Zeng et al, 2006).…”