Understanding neutralization is particularly relevant to an appreciation of the interaction
between a virus and its antibody-synthesizing host since it is likely that viruses and the
antibody system have evolved in response to reciprocally imposed selective pressures.
Neutralization of viruses which only infect non-antibody-synthesizing hosts, while of
considerable interest from of points of view is de facto without any such evolutionary signifi a
number cance. In this second category are viruses of plants, invertebrates, vertebrates …

For the sake of brevity, I shall confine this review to the inactivation of virus infectivity which
is the direct result of combination with neutralizing antibody. This restriction is solely for
convenience and is not intended as a judgement of the importance of neutralization versus
inactivation involving secondary factors such as complement or cells which interact with
antibodies. Neutralizing antibody is one of the main arms of protective immunity and is the
type of immunity which usually results from vaccination, so it is somewhat surprising to find …

How a virus is neutralised depends upon several interacting factors. The most important of
these, but by no means the only ones, are the interaction of a specific epitope, the properties
of the cognate antibody, and the nature of the host cell. Variation in any one of these may
change the mechanism by which neutralisation occurs and may obviate neutralisation
altogether. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of neutralisation; for a more
detailed discussion the reader should consult Dimmock'for references up to 1993 and more …