Relationship between glycoproteins of the viral envelope of bunyaviruses and antibody-dependent plaque enhancement.

Hamster antisera against three parental bunyaviruses, Batai, Bunyamwera and Maguari viruses, and six recombinant viruses which carried the nucleocapsid protein of one parent and the glycoproteins of the other, have been tested for their interaction with each of the nine viruses under study by two assays, plaque reduction neutralization and antibody-dependent plaque enhancement. Neutralization was clearly related to the specificity of the parental glycoproteins rather than the nucleoprotein, but the antibody-dependent plaque enhancement assay showed greater cross-reactivity.