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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
An Improved and High Throughput Respiratory Syncytial Virus RSV Micro-neutralization Assay
Published on: January 26, 2019
Development and validation of a respiratory syncytial virus multiplex immunoassay
Patrick Marsall1, Madeleine Fandrich1, Johanna Griesbaum1
1NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen, Reutlingen, Germany.
Purpose:
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the leading causes of severe respiratory disease in infants and adults. While vaccines and monoclonal therapeutic antibodies either are or will shortly become available, correlates of protection remain unclear. For this purpose, we developed an RSV multiplex immunoassay that analyses antibody titers toward the post-F, Nucleoprotein, and a diverse mix of G proteins.
Methods:
A bead-based multiplex RSV immunoassay was developed, technically validated to standard FDA bioanalytical guidelines, and clinically validated using samples from human challenge studies. RSV antibody titers were then investigated in children aged under 2 and a population-based cohort.
Results:
Technical and clinical validation showed outstanding performance, while methodological developments enabled identification of the subtype of previous infections through use of the diverse G proteins for approximately 50% of samples. As a proof of concept to show the suitability of the assay in serosurveillance studies, we then evaluated titer decay and age-dependent antibody responses within population cohorts.
Conclusion:
Overall, the developed assay shows robust performance, is scalable, provides additional information on infection subtype, and is therefore ideally suited to be used in future population cohort studies.
