Locally Produced and Serum Derived Antibodies in "Local Immunity"

Abstract

In this issue of the Journal, Ogra and his coworkers present evidence that protection against nasopharyngeal reinfection with rubella virus requires the presence of antibody at that site, rather than in the serum. The appearance of nasopharyngeal antibody is best explained as a consequence of local rubella-virus replication of either wild or live attenuated vaccine strains. This is in apparent contrast to earlier data reviewed by the authors, which had suggested that nasopharyngeal immunity to reinfection could be correlated with the presence of serum antibodies. Seemingly contradictory evidence of this kind is frequently found in the published literature concerned with . . .