Antibody response in mice orally infected with B3 and B4 coxsackie viruses

Compelling data have been accumulated recently on the participation of cox-sackieviral infection (namely type B3 and B4) in the aetiology and pathogenicis of some serious diseases like myocarditis, pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus and others. We have followed the course of antibody response in mice orally infected with coxsackie viruses B3 (strain Nancy) and B4 (strain JVB). The sera collected from infected and control animals at different intervals (up to 96 day post infection) were tested for the presence of anti-coxsackieviral antibodies by in-house Western-blot method. The positive reaction was observed on the day 4 in mice infected with coxsackievirus B3 and on day 6 in mice infected with coxsackievirus B4. The results were comparable to those obtained in virus-neutralisation tests. Our results show that oral route of infection may be successfully used also in studies of coxsackievirus pathogenics.