Effect of neuraminidase on antibody combining unit (ACU) titers of human sera determined by Drescher's photometric procedure.

Abstract

Drescher-photometric technique, which differentiates between inhibition of hemagglutination strain specific antibody from that caused by nonspecific inhibition or cross reacting antibodies, has been used in our laboratory to validate the specificity of antibody patterns found in human serum by conventional HI tests (1). On the basis of the age distribution of antibodies to prototype strains, the data have been interpreted to indicate that mankind has experienced in succession past periods of prevalence of swine, Hong Kong, Asian and Equine-2 like viruses, respectively, during the outbreaks of 1918-19, 1900 and 1889-90 and on at least 2 occasions during the period 1874-1888 (2–6).At the time that these studies were being carried out, it had not been recognized that in special circumstances antibody mediated inhibition of hemagglutination could be effected solely by antineuraminidase antibodies presumably by causing steric hindrance with viral hemagglutinin (7). That finding raised the question whether the ...