Molecular dissection of the humoral immune response to individual varicella-zoster viral proteins during chickenpox, quiescence, reinfection, and reactivation.

The sequence of antibody formation to molecularly defined varicella-zoster virus (VZV) proteins was examined during the course of chickenpox, quiescence, and subsequent VZV reactivation and reinfection. The first antibodies produced after primary VZV infection were to two virion envelope glycoproteins, gp66 and gp118 , and the nucleocapsid protein p155 . Within one to two months, antibodies to a greater array of viral proteins and glycoproteins were observed. Antibodies to the immunodominant viral proteins ( gp66 , gp118 , and p155 ) persisted for years after varicella and were, therefore, excellent markers of prior VZV infection. Subclinical VZV reinfection also was associated with transient rises in levels of the same polypeptide-specific antibodies as during primary disease. The immunoglobulin response to zoster appeared more rapidly than that to chickenpox or reinfection and was to the broadest complement of viral proteins, including the distinctive VZV polypeptide p32. These radioimmune-precipitation profiles could be subdivided into six different patterns characteristic of the following clinical states: acute- and convalescent-phase chickenpox, quiescence, acute- and convalescent-phase zoster, and postzoster quiescence.