Document 1925
 DOCN  M94A1925
 TI    HIV-1 strain specific B-cell response to V3 loop disappears from early
       to late stages of infection.
 DT    9412
 AU    Schreiber M; Wachsmuth C; Muller H; von Lunzen J; Schmitz H; Bernhard
       Nocht Inst. f. Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, FRG.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):42 (abstract no. 142A). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94370650
 AB    OBJECTIVE: The high variability of HIV-1 V3 leads to escape mutants
       which are not recognized by the patients autologous antibodies. We were
       therefore interested in examining the B cell response to V3 loop
       variants at different times during HIV infection. METHODS: For each
       patient the different V3 variants were analyzed by sequencing. The in
       vivo infectious cell-free virus (iCFV) which escapes the neutralizing
       activity was characterized by an autologous Serum-PBMC neutralization
       assay. Recombinant V3 loop glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins
       were tested with the patient sera using ELISA. RESULTS: For each patient
       the V3 loop of the iCFV escape mutant was tested in comparison with the
       patient specific non-iCFV V3 loop using autologous sera from
       asymptomatic through to symptomatic stages. We found that iCFV V3
       variants escaping neutralization at late stages were well recognized by
       patient antibodies years before. Surprisingly the titers decreased
       continuously over years and by the time the V3 variant was characterized
       as infectious virus no anti-iCFV V3 loop antibody could be detected.
       CONCLUSION: The data shows that the HIV B-cell response to later
       appearing V3 variants is present in the early stage of the disease. The
       B-cell response continuously decreases in an unknown but highly V3
       specific manner during the progression of the disease.
 DE    *Amino Acid Sequence  B-Lymphocytes/*IMMUNOLOGY  Enzyme-Linked
       Immunosorbent Assay  Human  HIV-1/*GENETICS/IMMUNOLOGY  Neutralization
       Tests  Recombinant Fusion Proteins/ANALYSIS  MEETING ABSTRACT

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