The human Betacoronavirus OC43 is a common cause of respiratory viral infections in adults and children. Lung infections with OC43 are associated with mortality, especially in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Neutralizing antibodies play a major role in protection against many respiratory viral infections, but to date a live viral neutralization assay for OC43 has not been described. We isolated a human monoclonal antibody (OC2) that binds to the spike protein of OC43 and neutralizes the live virus derived from the original isolate of OC43. We used this monoclonal antibody to develop and test the performance of two readily accessible in vitro assays for measuring antibody neutralization, one utilizing cytopathic effect and another utilizing an ELISA of infected cells. We used both methods to measure the neutralizing activity of the OC2 monoclonal antibody and of human plasma. These assays could prove useful for studying humoral responses to OC43 and cross-neutralization with other medically important betacoronaviruses.
Keywords: OC43; human coronavirus; neutralization assays; neutralizing antibodies.