Specificity
This antibody recognises Influenza B, RSV, Para 1-3 or Adenovirus. It does not react with HEp-2 cells but may react with some chicken cellular proteins.Influenza type A viruses are divided into subtypes based on the antigenic differences of two viral surface proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). On infection of the respiratory tract, the hemagglutinin molecule binds to sialic acid-containing receptors on the epithelial cells resulting in endocytosis. Once the virus has been engulfed, the hemagglutinin allows the viral membrane to fuse with the endosomal membrane. Neuraminidase functions to aid viral release from host cells by cleaving terminal sialic acid residues from carbohydrate moieties on the cell surface. Viral release also requires the interaction of the viral M1 protein with the cellular scaffold G-like protein RACK1. Subtype antigenic variations result from a process known as antigenic drift whereby these surface proteins constantly mutate in order to evade the host immune response. Subtype A(H1N1) was the cause of Spanish flu pandemic that killed approximately 50,000,000 people between 1918-1919.