• Ruiqi Zhang, Xia Rong, Weiqi Pan, and Tao Peng.
• State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
• Scand. J. Infect. Dis. 2011 Mar 1;43(3):216-20.

BackgroundHumoral virus neutralizing activity is crucial in preventing influenza virus infection. However, the influenza neutralizing activity in the general population remains unclear.MethodsIn this study we performed a serological survey of 200 blood donors from Guangzhou, China. Using a microneutralization (MN) assay, neutralizing activities against influenza A 2009 H1N1, H3N2 and H5N1 were measured. Anti-haemagglutinin antibody was assayed by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. Also, antibodies against M1 and M2 matrix proteins were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).ResultsBy MN assay, 86% of the individuals showed neutralizing activity against H3N2, 11% against 2009 H1N1, and none against H5N1. The positive rate for H3N2 increased as the age of individuals increased. Interestingly, males displayed a 4 times higher positive rate against 2009 H1N1 than females. The results of ELISA revealed that 97.5% of the individuals had positive M1 titres and 21% had positive M2 titres. Furthermore, anti-haemagglutinin antibody had a much higher correlation with the neutralization activity than anti-M1 and anti-M2 antibodies.ConclusionsNeutralizing activities against H5N1 and 2009 H1N1 were low in the general population. Therefore, public health agencies should design strategies for preventing potential H5N1 and 2009 H1N1 pandemics.

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