Coronavirus antibody titres in sera of healthy adults and experimentally infected volunteers

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Abstract
SUMMARY Six coronaviruses isolated in the U.S.A. have been inoculated into volunteers and all produced colds. Between 10 and 20 % of infected volunteers developed heterologous antibody responses after these and other experimental infections with coronaviruses. The haemagglutination-inhibition test with the OC43 virus strain was found to detect antibody rises after infection with a variety of strains. Studies on normal adult sera taken between 1965 and 1970 revealed a high frequency of neutralizing antibody to one strain (229E) and a frequency of HI antibody to strain OC43 which fluctuated from year to year. Complement-fixing antibodies to these two viruses were also found, revealing an apparent increase in the activity of coronaviruses in the general population of the U.K., during the winter of 1968–9.