IgG subclass antibodies to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) in normal human plasma samples and immune globulins and their neutralizing activities.

An enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for quantitation of IgG subclass antibodies to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) in human serum or plasma samples and in immune globulin (IG) preparations. The assay was based on the parallel titration of known concentrations of purified IgG subclass myeloma proteins and a specific CMV antiserum. The purified IgG subclass myeloma proteins were captured on an ELISA plate pre-coated with anti-human kappa, anti-human lambda or a mixture of anti-human kappa and lambda antibodies and the specific antiserum was titrated against CMV antigen coated on the plate. IgG subclass antibodies, captured or bound to antigen, were quantitated with IGG subclass heavy chain specific monoclonal antibodies. The method was highly reproducible, specific and sensitive. Using this method, 257 human plasma samples and 50 IG preparations were assayed for CMV specific IgG subclass and IgM antibodies. The major IgG subclass antibody to CMV was IgG1 which represented more than 96% of CMV IgG antibodies, followed by IgG3 (mean CMV IgG3 antibody content was 3% of IgG antibodies in IG preparations and 1.8% in plasma samples). A majority of the samples had low levels of IgG2 antibodies and a few samples exhibited low levels of IgG4 antibodies. IG preparations showed very low levels of CMV IgM antibodies whereas plasma samples had 14.2% of CMV antibodies (IgG and IgM) as IgM antibodies. Virus neutralizing (Nt) activity of these samples showed a significant correlation with CMV IgG1 antibodies. Nine samples of plasma and IGs were further evaluated for Nt activity of IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies by separating IgG3 from the rest of the antibodies with protein A agarose. IgG3 antibodies showed much higher Nt activity than IgG1 antibodies suggesting that enrichment of IgG3 antibodies in IG preparations may be useful in preparing CMV specific IG.