Zheng Xuehua, Rong Xia, Feng Ying, Sun Xikui, Li Liang, Wang Qian, Wang Min, Liu Wenkuan, Li Chufang, Yang Yiyu, Zhou Rong, Lu Jiahai, Feng Liqiang, Chen Ling
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510530, China.
Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
Emerg Microbes Infect. 2017 Jun 7;6(6):e43. doi: 10.1038/emi.2017.29.
Re-emerging human adenovirus types 14 (Ad14) and 55 (Ad55) have caused severe respiratory diseases and even deaths during recent outbreaks. However, the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) in healthy adults, which may reflect previous circulation and help to predict potential outbreaks, remains unclear. In this study, we established micro-neutralizing (MN) assays on the basis of recombinant Ad14 and Ad55 reporter viruses, and we investigated serum nAbs in healthy blood donors from Southern China. We found that the overall seropositive rates were 24.8% and 22.4% for Ad14 and Ad55 nAbs, respectively. The seropositive rates were low in individuals younger than 20, and they gradually increased with age. Ad55-seropositive individuals tended to have high nAb titers (>1000), while low (72-200) and moderate (201-1000) nAb levels were frequently observed in Ad14-seropositive ones. Surprisingly, the seropositive rates and nAb levels were associated with the blood type but not the gender of the blood donors, with type AB individuals displaying higher seropositive rates and nAb levels. Interestingly, a significant positive correlation was observed between Ad14 and Ad55 seroprevalence, and higher titers of nAbs were detected in double-positive individuals compared to single-positive ones. These results clarified the human humoral immune responses against Ad14 and Ad55 and revealed a low level of herd immunity in some subpopulations, which emphasized the importance of monitoring these two highly virulent adenoviruses and reinforced the development of prophylactic vaccines.
重新出现的14型（Ad14）和55型（Ad55）人腺病毒在近期的疫情爆发中引发了严重的呼吸道疾病甚至死亡。然而，健康成年人中中和抗体（nAbs）的血清流行率仍不清楚，这可能反映了之前的病毒传播情况并有助于预测潜在的疫情爆发。在本研究中，我们基于重组Ad14和Ad55报告病毒建立了微量中和（MN）试验，并调查了中国南方健康献血者的血清nAbs。我们发现，Ad14和Ad55 nAbs的总体血清阳性率分别为24.8%和22.4%。20岁以下个体的血清阳性率较低，且随年龄逐渐升高。Ad55血清阳性个体往往具有较高的nAb滴度（>1000），而Ad14血清阳性个体中经常观察到低（72 - 200）和中等（201 - 1000）的nAb水平。令人惊讶的是，血清阳性率和nAb水平与献血者的血型有关，而与性别无关，AB型个体的血清阳性率和nAb水平较高。有趣的是，观察到Ad14和Ad55血清流行率之间存在显著正相关，与单阳性个体相比，双阳性个体中检测到的nAb滴度更高。这些结果阐明了人类针对Ad14和Ad55的体液免疫反应，并揭示了一些亚群体中群体免疫水平较低，这强调了监测这两种高毒力腺病毒的重要性，并加强了预防性疫苗的研发。
