Seroprevalence of Neutralizing Antibodies Against Human Adenovirus Genotypes Associated With Acute Respiratory Infections in Healthy South Korean Individuals (2019)

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are major etiological agents of acute respiratory infections (ARIs); however, population-level immunity to primary genotypes in South Korea remains unclear. We applied a micro-neutralization enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to assess neutralizing antibodies against HAdV-3, -4, -7, and -55 in sera from 800 healthy individuals. Seropositivity was highest for HAdV-3 (79.3%), followed by HAdV-4 (47.3%), HAdV-55 (30.1%), and HAdV-7 (21.3%). HAdV-3 exhibited both high prevalence and titers, whereas HAdV-4 exhibited predominantly low titers. HAdV-7 and -55 exhibited lower seroprevalence, with moderate nAb levels observed among seropositive individuals. Seroprevalence was similar across age and sex, except for a significant decline in HAdV-55 among individuals aged ≥ 50 years. These findings provide large-scale seroepidemiological data on ARI-associated HAdV genotypes in South Korea.