@article{Liu_Gemmell_Lin_Zuo_Balfour_Woo_Hayes_2020, title={DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS (EBV) NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY ASSAY TO FACILITATE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROPHYLACTIC GP350-SUBUNIT EBV VACCINE}, volume={12}, url={https://www.mjhid.org/mjhid/article/view/2020.016}, DOI={10.4084/mjhid.2020.016}, abstractNote={<p>No licensed vaccine is available for prevention of EBV-associated diseases, and robust, sensitive, and high-throughput bioanalytical assays are needed to evaluate immunogenicity of gp350 subunit-based candidate EBV vaccines. Here we have developed and improved analytical tools for such a vaccine’s pre-clinical and clinical validation including a gp350-specific antibody detection assay and an EBV-GFP based neutralization assay for measuring EBV specific antibodies in human donors. The sensitivity of our previously published high-throughput EBV-GFP fluorescent focus (FFA)-based neutralization assay was further improved when guinea pig complement was supplemented using a panel of healthy human sera. Anti-gp350 antibody titers, which were evaluated using an anti-gp350 IgG ELISA assay optimized for capture and detection conditions, were moderately correlated to the FFA-based neutralization titers. Overall, these sensitive, and high-throughput bioanalytical assays are capable of characterizing the serologic response to natural EBV infection, with applications in evaluating EBV antibody status in epidemiologic studies and immunogenicity of candidate gp350-subunit EBV vaccines in clinical studies.</p>}, number={1}, journal={Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases}, author={Liu, Hui and Gemmell, Lorraine and Lin, Rui and Zuo, Fengrong and Balfour, Henry H. and Woo, Jennifer C. and Hayes, Gregory M.}, year={2020}, month={Feb.}, pages={e2020016} }