Little role of anti-gB antibodies in neutralizing activity of patient's sera with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) gB is known to play important roles in cell su rface attachment, Virion penetration, spread of infection from cell to cell , and provocation of neutralizing antibody, This study was performed to det ermine the role of anti-HCMV gB antibody in overall neutralizing response i n patients with HCMV infection and healthy control with past infection. HCM V gB was stably expressed in 293 cells. With the stable cell line expressin g gB as a specific immunosorbent, anti-gB antibody was removed from the cur rent and past HCMV-infected sera and the remaining neutralizing activity wa s measured by plaque assay. It was shown that 19-50% of the total virus-neu tralizing activity of sera with past HCMV infections was derived from anti- gB antibody, but anti-gB antibody had little effect on the total serum viru s-neutralizing activity in patients currently infected with HCMV. This resu lt suggests that neutralizing antibody to HCMV gB may reflect disease statu s.