%0 Journal Article %A Pang, Hai %A Liu, Yinggang %A Han, Xueqing %A Xu, Yanhui %A Jiang, Fuguo %A Wu, Donglai %A Kong, Xiangang %A Bartlam, Mark %A Rao, Zihe %T Protective humoral responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus: implications for the design of an effective protein-based vaccine %D 2004 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 85 %N 10 %P 3109-3113 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.80111-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Some of the structural proteins of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) carry major epitopes involved in virus neutralization and are essential for the induction of protective humoral responses and the development of an effective vaccine. Rabbit antisera were prepared using full-length N and M proteins and eight expressed fragments covering the S protein. Antisera to S and M proteins were found to have different neutralizing titres towards SARS-CoV infection in vivo, ranging from 1 : 35 to 1 : 128. Antiserum to the N protein did not contain neutralizing antibodies. Epitopes inducing protective humoral responses to virus infection were located mainly in the M protein and a region spanning residues 13–877 of the S protein. The neutralizing ability of antisera directed against the expressed structural proteins was greater than that of convalescent patient antisera, confirming that, as immunogens, the former induce strong, SARS-CoV-specific neutralizing antibody responses. The in vitro neutralization assay has important implications for the design of an effective, protein-based vaccine preventing SARS-CoV infection. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.80111-0