A serological survey on neutralizing antibody titer of SARS convalescent sera

A seroepidemiologic study was conducted in North China in 2003 to determine the neutralizing antibody titer of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) convalescent sera. A total of 99 SARS convalescent serum samples were collected from patients from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hebei Province, and Beijing 35-180 days after the onset of symptoms. The anti-SARS antibodies were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), neutralization assay, and Western blot. Eighty-seven serum samples were confirmed to be positive for SARS antibodies. The neutralizing antibody titer of the 87 positive sera was analyzed quantitatively by neutralization assay. The geometric mean titer (GMT) of the 87 convalescent sera was 1:61. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that the neutralizing antibody titers conform to normal distribution, which suggests that the average anti-SARS antibody level in this study was representative of the convalescent antibody level of the SARS population. This result could be useful for the development and quality control of SARS vaccines.