The Sedimentation Behavior of Rhinovirus Neutralizing Activity in Nasal Secretion and Serum Following the Rhinovirus Common Cold

Abstract

Summary Nasal washings and serum from nine volunteers inoculated with rhinovirus NIH-1734 were fractionated by sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation and the fractions were analyzed quantitatively for γA-globulin, γG-globulin and rhinovirus neutralizing activity. Neutralizing activity in the nasal secretions was predominantly associated with 9S to 14S γA-globulin whether the nasal secretion sample came from individuals developing antibody for the first time after experimental infection or from volunteers with naturally acquired antibody of long duration. In a few nasal secretion samples, 5S to 7S neutralizing activity was also found to be associated with both γA-globulins and γG-globulins and, in a single instance, nasal secretion contained 18S virus neutralizing activity which may have been associated with γM-globulin. Rhinovirus neutralizing activity in serum from all but one volunteer sedimented in the 5S to 7S region and was associated with fractions containing both γA- and γG-globulins. Sera from five subjects also contained virus neutralizing activity, which sedimented between 7S and 19S. Serum from one additional volunteer contained only 14S and 20S virus neutralizing activity. 19S antibody developed in only one of four volunteers infected for the first time with this strain of rhinovirus.