THE USE OF HOMOLOGOUS AND HETEROLOGOUS ROTAVIRUS ANTIBODIES FOR THE PREVENTION OF ROTAVIRUS GASTROENTERITIS

Rotavirus is an important cause of serious gastroenteritis in children. One possible strategy for the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis is the oral administration of rotavirus specific immunoglobulin. We utilized a mouse model of rotavirus infection to examine the efficacy of rotavirus antibody for the prevention of symptomatic rotavirus diarrhea. This model consists of the feeding of seronegative infant mice a predetermined amount of murine rotavirus and antibody and then assaying the animals for intestinal antigen excretion, liquid colonic contents, and immune response. We found that mouse serum containing homologous antibodies to murine rotavirus completely protected animals from symptomatic infection and viral shedding while non-immune serum provided no protection. Neither immune nor non-immune mouse milk offered any protection from infection. In the case of heterologous sources of sera obtained from animals experimentally infected with human or bovine rotaviruses, and antibodies derived from the yolks of eggs obtained from chickens immunized with rotaviruses full protection was provided from symptomatic disease. Non-immune sera and immune human milk did not protect the animal from infection. The majority of the animals treated with effective specific immunoglobulin preparations developed a rotavirus systemic antibody response. These studies indicate that homologous and heterologous sources of rotavirus antibodies can provide protection from rotavirus diarrhea and may allow for active immunity to occur.