SERUM HIV ANTIGEN AND ANTI-P24-ANTIBODIES IN 200 HIV SEROPOSITIVE PATIENTS - CORRELATION WITH CD4 AND CD8 LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS

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  • 1 July 1988
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 73  (1) , 1-5
Abstract
Serum HIV (P24) antigen (Ag) measured by an antigen capture ELISA (Abbott) and anti-P24-antibodies (Abs) measured by a competitive ELISA (Abbott) and by Western Blot (Dupont de Nemours) analysis were correlated with lymphocyte subsets (CD4 and CD8) in 174 HIV seropositive patients without AIDS (non-AIDS) and 26 with AIDS. In the non-AIDS group, 27% of the patients were anti-P-24-Ab negative and 215 were Ag positive while in the AIDS group these figures were 62% and 54% respectively (P < 0.001). Overall, a significant correlation exists between the Ab-Ag profile and the CD4 cell count: the percentage of patients with anti-P24-Ab positive and Ag negative decreases from 90% for patients with more than 900 CD4 cells/.mu.l to 21% for patients with 100 and less CD4 cells/.mu.l; on the contrary, the percentage of patients with anti-P24-Ab negative and Ag positive increases from 0% over 800 CD4 cells to 53% under 100 CD4 cells/.mu.l. A weak correlation may also exist with the CD8 cell count. The subgroup of patients with 1,00 or more CD8 cells/.mu.l have a higher (but not significant) percentage of subjects with Ag positive and anti-P24-Ab negative than the subgroup with less than 1,000 CD8 cells/.mu.l. A short-term longitudinal study (mean followup: 1 year) was performed on 80 non-AIDS subjects: 77% (10/13)of those who had a CD4 cell decrease (> 30%) were intitially Ag positive, while only 21% (14/67) of those without a decrease were Ag positive at the beginning (P < 0.1). Although the relative weight and individual predictive value of each of these parameters need to be classified, they are probably the best biological markers currently available for monitoring clinical trails with experimental drugs.