The Nature of Antibodies Following Experimental Arbovirus Infection in Guinea Pigs

Abstract

Following experimental infection of guinea pigs with Japanese encephalitis and Russian spring-summer encephalitis viruses, complement-fixing (CF), hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) and neutralizing (N) antibodies are regularly formed by the 7th to the 10th days. Characterization of these antibodies at various times over a 4-month period revealed that CF antibody was invariably associated with a 7 S γ₂-globulin; there was no evidence of an early 19 S complement-fixing antibody. The earliest detectable HI and N antibodies at 7 to 10 days were largely associated with a 19 S γ-globulin; after 14 days, these activities were found in the 7 S γ₁ and γ₂-globulin moieties. These data are interpreted to indicate that following experimental infection with these arboviruses, antibody is produced with different physicochemical properties which may account for the temporal dissociation of antibody responses seen following infection.