Norovirus, causative agent of winter vomiting disease, exploits several histo-blood group glycans for adhesion

Norovirus is recognized as the major cause of outbreaks of gastroenteritis world-wide, yet no vaccines or drugs are available for prevention or treatment of the virus infection. Challenge studies and binding studies using virus-like particles (VLPs) have suggested susceptibility to norovirus infection to be associated with secretor status. This thesis supports this idea by demonstrating that among 105 Swedish blood donors, non-secretors had significantly lower plasma titers of norovirus genogroup (G) II.4 specific IgG antibodies than secretors (p