TY - JOUR AU - Arabi, Yaseen AU - Hajeer, Ali AU - Luke, Thomas AU - Raviprakash, Kanakatte AU - Balkhy, Hanan AU - Johani, Sameera AU - Al-Dawood, Abdulaziz AU - Al-Qahtani, Saad AU - Al-Omari, Awad AU - Al-Hameed, Fahad AU - Hayden, Frederick AU - Fowler, Robert AU - Bouchama, Abderrezak AU - Shindo, Nahoko AU - Al-Khairy, Khalid AU - Carson, Gail AU - Taha, Yusri AU - Sadat, Musharaf AU - Alahmadi, Mashail T1 - Feasibility of Using Convalescent Plasma Immunotherapy for MERS-CoV Infection, Saudi Arabia T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2016 VL - 22 IS - 9 SP - 1554 SN - 1080-6059 AB - We explored the feasibility of collecting convalescent plasma for passive immunotherapy of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection by using ELISA to screen serum samples from 443 potential plasma donors: 196 patients with suspected or laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV infection, 230 healthcare workers, and 17 household contacts exposed to MERS-CoV. ELISA-reactive samples were further tested by indirect fluorescent antibody and microneutralization assays. Of the 443 tested samples, 12 (2.7%) had a reactive ELISA result, and 9 of the 12 had reactive indirect fluorescent antibody and microneutralization assay titers. Undertaking clinical trials of convalescent plasma for passive immunotherapy of MERS-CoV infection may be feasible, but such trials would be challenging because of the small pool of potential donors with sufficiently high antibody titers. Alternative strategies to identify convalescent plasma donors with adequate antibody titers should be explored, including the sampling of serum from patients with more severe disease and sampling at earlier points during illness. KW - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus KW - MERS-CoV KW - Middle East respiratory syndrome KW - intensive care KW - convalescent plasma KW - high-titer convalescent plasma KW - convalescent phase KW - immunotherapy KW - seroreactive KW - neutralizing antibodies KW - antibody titers KW - viruses KW - ELISA KW - microneutralization KW - indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay KW - IFA KW - Saudi Arabia KW - MERS KW - convalescent-phase plasma KW - feasibility study KW - humans KW - respiratory infections KW - Vaccine DO - 10.3201/eid2209.151164 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/9/15-1164_article ER - End of Reference