Antiviral antibodies in the sera of homosexual men: Correlation with their lifestyle and drug usage

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Abstract
Healthy homosexual men between the ages of 21 and 65 years, from the Washington, DC (n = 162), and New York City (n = 89) areas, were studied for antibodies in the serum against cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2, and Epstein Barr virus (EBV) viral capsid antigen (VCA). CMV‐specific antibodies were assayed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), anti‐HSV‐1 and ‐2 antibodies were measured by indirect hemagglutination (IHA), and antibodies to EBV VCA were measured by the immunofluorescence assay. Antibodies to human T lymphotrophic virus III (HTLV‐III) were detected by ELISA and Western blot procedures. T lymphocytes were enumerated using OKT4 monoclonal antibody. Healthy male volunteer blood donors (n = 90) matched for age range and race proportions were used as controls. The percentage of seropositive individuals in the homosexual group was higher (90–98 %) for all the viruses tested than in the control group (47–87%). Comparisons of the geometric mean titers, expressed as reciprocal serum dilutions, of seropositive individuals in homosexual (H) vs control (C) group were as follows: CMV‐IgG (ELISA) H = 1:794, C = 1:68; HSV‐1 (IHA) H = 1: 248, C = 1:14; HSV‐2 (IHA) H = 1:56, C = 1:17; EBV‐VCA (IFA) H = 1:385, C = 1:131. The homosexual group also showed a higher frequency of individuals with elevated titers than the control group. The CMV IgM antibody was prevalent in 17.7% of the homosexual group and 5% of the control group; arithmetic means for ELISA values for CMV IgM were 0.207 for the homosexual group and 0.05 for the control group. In the homosexual group, the anti‐CMV antibody titers increased with age (P = 0.01) and with numbers of sex partners (P = 0.06). Both anti‐HSV‐1 and anti‐HSV‐2 antibodies correlated with the number of sex partners (P = 0.04 and P = 0.05, respectively). Neither age nor partner number correlated with response to EBV, and no particular sex act was related to the EBV VCA titer level. HTLV‐III seropositivity was associated with higher herpes virus group antibody titers, probably because of life style cofactors. Among the HTLV‐111‐seropositive subjects, those with ≤ 400 T‐helper lymphocytes/mm3 had lower antibody titers than those with ≥ 400 T‐helper lymphocytes/mm3 counts, suggesting an impaired immune response secondary to immunosuppression.