V3 peptide binding pattern and HIV-1 transmission route in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

To characterize antibody binding to a panel of V3 loop peptides representing diverse HIV-1 neutralization epitopes, 149 HIV-1 infected individuals from Rio de Janeiro (RJ) were investigated. Results were analyzed with respect to risk factors for infection and other epidemiological and clinical data. Peptide reactivity was not associated with sex, clinical status, CD4 counts, antigenemia or beta 2-microglobulin serum level. A segregation of peptide reactivity according to route of infection was encountered. This finding suggests that more then one viral strain may be circulating in RJ, in subjects with different risk factors for HIV-1 infection. An investigation of prevalent HIV-1 genotypes, serotypes and immunotypes may be of importance for the design and selection of potential vaccines to be used in Brazil as well as for the selection of populations to be included in future vaccine efficacy trials.

Anti-HIV-1 seroreactivity and HIV transmission route[R1]

“…The results presented in this study confirm and extend previous reports (Vanderborght et al, 1991(Vanderborght et al, , 1992Cheingsong Popov et al, 1994;Pau et al, 1994;Pinto and Schechter, 1995;Hendry et al, 1996) on specificity of antibody binding to subtype-specific synthetic V3 peptides in that (a) reactivity of Brazilian HIV seropositive plasma with subtype B synthetic peptides is quite high (b) the B%% variant of the B subtype, apparently characteristic of South American HIV-1 strains, can be distinguished from classical B subtype strains by antibody binding assays in the majority of cases and (c) differentiation of B and F subtypes cannot be accomplished by these serotyping assays. The number of D (n= 1) plasma available for this study precludes evaluation.…”