6th International AIDS Conference San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:319 (abstract no. 1021)
Bahraoui E, Benjouad A, Sabatier JM, Allain JP, Laurian Y, Gluckman JC, Montagnier L; CNRS UA 1179 Marseille, France

OBJECTIVE: To study the relevance of anti-nef antibodies detection as an early marker of HIV infection.

METHODS: Anti-nef antibodies were detected by RIA with recombinant 125I nef expressed in E. Coli and by ELISA using synthetic peptides. The following points were investigated: i) the kinetics of appearance of anti-nef antibodies in a set of 49 longitudinal sera collected from 12 HIV infected donors at the time of seroconversion. ii) nef serology in a population of 35 HIV seropositive hemophiliacs and their seronegative or seropositive sexual partners.

RESULTS: The results obtained using a sensitive RIA showed that anti-nef antibodies could not be detected in the sera tested before antibodies specific to HIV structural proteins. Analysis of the first set of sera clearly shows that anti-nef developed in all 12 cases and that their occurrence was simultaneous with antibodies to p25 and or gp160. 16 of the 32 HIV seropositive men of the second set of sera were anti-nef positive (50%). All but one seropositive females were anti-nef positive (5/6 or 83%). In contrast, none of 29 seronegative females had detectable anti-nef.

CONCLUSION: These data indicate that anti-nef antibodies detection in sera of HIV-infected patients, in contradiction with previously published results, could not be used reliably as an early marker of HIV infection.

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