Anti-Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Specificity: Respiratory Syncytial Virus (Clone RSV-210915) is specific for the fusion protein of RSV Types A&B. Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common respiratory virus that infects the majority of children by two years old1, 2. While usually mild, RSV can be serious in infants and older adults and is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children less than one year of age in the United States1. A related pneumovirus, human metapneumovirus (hMPV), also significantly contributes to hospitalizations resulting from lower respiratory tract infection2. Antibodies have been described that bind and neutralize both RSV and hMPV fusion (F) proteins. RSV F protein is a type I integral membrane protein that is synthesized as a 574 amino acid inactive precursor, assembled into a trimer, post-translationally modified, then cleaved to produce F1, F2, and intervening peptide pep273. Functional F protein has both pre- and post-fusion conformations. RSV F protein is highly conserved among RSV isolates from both A and B subgroups3 and is the primary target for antiviral drug development3 with several antigenic regions capable of introducing neutralizing antibodies2. RSV and hMPV F protein share ~36% sequence similarity.