Monoclonal antibodies to human respiratory syncytial virus and their use in comparison of different virus isolates.

Monoclonal antibodies to the RSN -2 isolate of human respiratory syncytial (RS) virus have been characterized with regard to their specificity for viral polypeptides and for different RS virus isolates. Five hybridoma antibodies recognized the phospho-protein VPP32 and the other recognized the matrix protein VPM27 . Evidence was obtained to support the view that VPP32 was associated with the nucleoprotein VPN41 . Three of the antibodies to VPP32 showed cytoplasmic immunofluorescent staining while the other two showed only surface staining of virus-infected cells. The immunoblot technique was used to determine the immunoreactivity of four of the hybridoma antibodies against human RS isolates other than RSN -2. One of these antibodies reacted exclusively with RSN -2 virus isolate whereas the others detected determinants shared by all human RS isolates tested. Extension of this approach may offer the possibility of typing RS isolates using monoclonal antibodies.