Identification of a critical neutralization determinant of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus: importance for designing SARS vaccines

The spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is not only responsible for receptor binding, but also a major antigenic determinant capable of inducing protective immunity. In this study, we demonstrated that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of S protein is an important immunogenic site in patients with SARS and rabbits immunized with inactivated SARS-CoV. Serum samples from convalescent SARS...