Coronavirus antibody titres in sera of healthy adults and experimentally infected volunteers

Abstract

SUMMARY Six coronaviruses isolated in the U.S.A. have been inoculated into volunteers and all produced colds. Between 10 and 20 % of infected volunteers developed heterologous antibody responses after these and other experimental infections with coronaviruses. The haemagglutination-inhibition test with the OC43 virus strain was found to detect antibody rises after infection with a variety of strains. Studies on normal adult sera taken between 1965 and 1970 revealed a high frequency of neutralizing antibody to one strain (229E) and a frequency of HI antibody to strain OC43 which fluctuated from year to year. Complement-fixing antibodies to these two viruses were also found, revealing an apparent increase in the activity of coronaviruses in the general population of the U.K., during the winter of 1968–9.