Respiratory Syncytial Virus Neutralizing Activity in Nasal Secretions Following Natural Infection

Abstract

Recent studies in volunteers have demonstrated that the presence of local secretory IgA antibody against parainfluenza type 1 virus is more important than serum antibody in protection against subsequent homotypic virus infections ( 1, 2 ) . I t seems reasonable that this would be the case with other paramyxoviruses whose site of entry, replication and pathologic expression is limited similarly to the respiratory tract. Because of the importance of respiratory syncytial (RS) virus infection in infants and children, the nasal secretory antibody response was studied in 17 infants and children whose illness was due to naturally occurring RS virus infection. The findings, presented here, have implications for immune prophylaxis and for understanding the pathogenesis of RS virus illness in infants and children.Materials and Methods: Serum and nasal secretions were obtained from infants and children in whom there was reasonable clinical suspicion that their illness might have been due to RS virus infection. Specimens were obtained at the time of admission to the hospital and approximately 3 weeks thereafter. Findings are reported only for those in whom RS virus infection was proven by virus recovery and/or a fourfold or greater rise in serum complement fixing (CF) antibody following illness. The nasal secretions were collected by gentle suction from the nostril following the periodic instillation of small amounts of 0.15 M saline solution. None of the secretions tested was grossly contaminated with blood. Secretions were stored a t *

The local antibody response to R.S. virus infection in the respiratory tract

“…virus neutralizing activity in nasal secretions has been demonstrated in 11 out of 17 infants and children (65%) with natural R.S. virus infection of the lower respiratory tract (Kim et al 1969b). Recent studies have shown that it is possible to induce a local immune response to R.S.…”

Kinetics of antiviral CD8 T cell responses during primary and post-vaccination secondary bovine respiratory syncytial virus infection

“…Both with respect to epidemiology and pathogenesis, bRSV infection in calves closely resembles hRSV infection in infants and bRSV therefore, provides a valuable animal model for hRSV [1]. Vaccine development has been hampered by the fact that immunization with formalin-inactivated (FI) virus primes for a much more severe, and sometimes even lethal, form of respiratory disease [2][3][4][5][6]. This phenomenon was first observed in a human vaccine trial in the 1960s [4] and was later found to also occur in cattle immunized with formalin-or beta-propriolactone-inactivated bRSV [5,6].…”

“…Vaccine development has been hampered by the fact that immunization with formalin-inactivated (FI) virus primes for a much more severe, and sometimes even lethal, form of respiratory disease [2][3][4][5][6]. This phenomenon was first observed in a human vaccine trial in the 1960s [4] and was later found to also occur in cattle immunized with formalin-or beta-propriolactone-inactivated bRSV [5,6]. Enhanced disease resulting from immunization with Fl-virus has an immunopathological basis and has now been modeled in hRSV-infected mice [2,[7][8][9] and monkeys [10] and in bRSV-infected cattle [1,[11][12][13].…”

Analysis of the local and systemic immune responses induced in BALB/c mice by experimental respiratory syncytial virus infection

“…However, past attempts to develop an effective RS virus vaccine have met with little overall success. In a well documented series of clinical trials initiated in the late 1960s, a formalin-inactivated vaccine was used to immunize infants and young children, but was found not to reduce the incidence of subsequent RS virus reinfection (Chin et al, 1969;Kapikian et al, 1969;Kim et al, 1969). More disturbingly, the vaccine was found to potentiate the development of severe disease among vaccinees upon re-exposure to the virus.…”