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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding the immune response to seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV) infections such as HCoV-NL63, how existing neutralising antibodies to HCoV may modulate responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the utility of seasonal HCoV as human challenge models. Therefore, in this study we quantified HCoV-NL63 neutralising antibody titres in a healthy adult population using plasma from 100 blood donors in Australia. A microneutralisation assay was performed with plasma diluted from 1:10 to 1:160 and tested with the HCoV-NL63 Amsterdam-1 strain. Neutralising antibodies were detected in 71% of the plasma samples, with a median geometric mean titre of 14. This titre was similar to those reported in convalescent sera taken from individuals 3–7 months following asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 2–3 years post-infection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-1 patients. HCoV-NL63 neutralising antibody titres decreased with increasing age (R2 = 0.042, p = 0.038), but did not differ by sex. Overall, this study demonstrates that neutralising antibody to HCoV-NL63 is detectable in approximately 71% of the healthy adult population of Australia. Similar titres did not impede the use of another seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV-229E) in a human challenge model, thus, HCoV-NL63 may be useful as a human challenge model for more pathogenic coronaviruses.
Sean A. Lynch; Kanta Subbarao; Siddhartha Mahanty; Bridget E. Barber; Eileen V. Roulis; Lia van der Hoek; James S. McCarthy; Kirsten M. Spann. Prevalence of Neutralising Antibodies to HCoV-NL63 in Healthy Adults in Australia. Viruses 2021, 13, 1618 .
AMA StyleSean A. Lynch, Kanta Subbarao, Siddhartha Mahanty, Bridget E. Barber, Eileen V. Roulis, Lia van der Hoek, James S. McCarthy, Kirsten M. Spann. Prevalence of Neutralising Antibodies to HCoV-NL63 in Healthy Adults in Australia. Viruses. 2021; 13 (8):1618.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSean A. Lynch; Kanta Subbarao; Siddhartha Mahanty; Bridget E. Barber; Eileen V. Roulis; Lia van der Hoek; James S. McCarthy; Kirsten M. Spann. 2021. "Prevalence of Neutralising Antibodies to HCoV-NL63 in Healthy Adults in Australia." Viruses 13, no. 8: 1618.