Clin Exp Vaccine Res.  2019 Jan;8(1):86-88. 10.7774/cevr.2019.8.1.86.

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

• Choi JY
• Oh JO
• Ahn JY
• Choi H
• Kim JH
• Seong H
• Jeong SJ
• Ku NS
• Yeom JS
• Choi JP

• KMID: 2438973
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7774/cevr.2019.8.1.86

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.

Keyword

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Neutralizing antibodies; Serum

MeSH Terms

Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antiviral Agents*
Coronavirus Infections
Humans
Korea*
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Pneumonia
Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antiviral Agents

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Inhibitory activity of patients' sera against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus pseudovirus infection. Three-fold diluted serum of subjects 1 and 2 showed only 9.7% and 10.3% reductions in relative light unit (RLU), respectively, while that of subject 3 showed only a 2.2% reduction. Control serum was collected from a healthy volunteer.

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