Effect of respiratory syncytial virus and virus-antibody complexes on the oxidative metabolism of human neutrophils

The effect of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or mixtures of RSV and its specific antibody on the oxidative metabolic activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes was studied by the technique of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence. Peripheral blood neutrophils obtained from normal healthy donors were used. RSV alone failed to induce any chemiluminescent response by the neutrophils. However, mixtures of RSV and RSV antibody-positive serum regularly elicited significant neutrophil chemiluminescence. Ultracentrifugation, electron microscopy, and Raji cell immune complex assays of virus-antibody mixtures suggested that the neutrophil chemiluminescent response was related to the presence of specific immune complexes of RSV antigen-antibody. Heat inactivation of the serum significantly reduced the polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemiluminescence, and the response also appeared to be dependent on the dose of the virus and the antibody in the reaction mixture. It is proposed that interaction between the neutrophil and RSV-specific immune complexes may contribute to the pathogenesis of RSV infection via the possible release of metabolic products from the activated neutrophils.