Absence of neutralizing activity in serum 1 year after successful treatment with antivirals and recovery from MERS in South Korea

Abstract

We evaluated the neutralizing activity in serum from three patients >1 year after recovery from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) associated with mild pneumonia treated with antivirals during the MERS outbreak in South Korea at 2015. The neutralizing activity in serum was measured by pseudovirus inhibition assays. Three-fold diluted serum of subjects showed only 9.7%, 10.3%, and 2.2% reductions in relative light units. So, significant neutralizing activity was not demonstrated in any sera of three patients with mild pneumonia >1 year after being successfully treated with antiviral agents and recovering from MERS coronavirus infection.