ANTIBODY RESPONSE OF PATIENTS WITH POLIOMYELITIS TO VIRUS RECOVERED FROM THEIR OWN ALIMENTARY TRACT

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Abstract
Of 20 strains of virus recovered from 40 patients with poliomyelitis only 9 possessed a titer of 10–3 or more, permitting significant quantitative neutralization tests in monkeys. Seven of the 9 high titer strains were derived from patients whose illness was ultimately paralytic, and tests with their undiluted sera indicated that the acute phase as well as the 3 month convalescent specimens neutralized maximum amounts of the patient's own virus. However when varying dilutions of the sera were tested against a single dose of virus, it was found that the antibody was present in lowest concentration early after onset and progressively increased in titer over a period of weeks during convalescence. The 2 remaining high titer strains were recovered from patients with a non-paralytic illness, and in both of these the acute phase sera were without significant amounts of antibody for their own virus. Antibody was demonstrable at 14, 28, and 92 days after onset in one of these patients, while the other had none at 1 month and only a minimal amount at 3 and 8 months.