Antibody Responses of Rhesus (Macaca Mulatta) Monkeys Experimentally Infected with Coxsackieviruses of Group B and Group A, Type 9

Abstract

Summary Neutralizing, complement-fixing (CF), precipitating and hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) antibody responses were studied in rhesus monkeys experimentally infected by oral administration of coxsackievirus types B1, B3, B4, B5, B6 and A9. Antibody responses were studied both in initial infections and in successive infections with viral heterotypes. Neutralizing antibody responses were seen to be rapid and type specific; in successive infections with viral heterotypes antibody elicited by previous infections was often recalled, but antibody was not produced to viral types other than those with which the animals had experienced an infection. Complement-fixing antibody responses were type specific in initial infections, but subsequent infections served to broaden the antibody spectrum; not only was antibody recalled to viral types with which the animals had previously been infected, but CF antibody was produced to viral types with which the animals had ostensibly had no previous experience. CF antibody responses were also accelerated in successive infections. The monkeys produced both specific and group-reactive precipitating antibodies, the latter to viral types with which the animals had not been infected. As in the case of CF antibodies, the spectrum of group precipitating antibodies was broadened in successive infections. Specific precipitating antibody was produced only to the infecting viral type and was of short duration. HI antibody produced in response to infections with coxsackievirus types B1, B3 and B5 was type specific and tended to parallel neutralizing antibody in temporal appearance and persistence.