A longitudinal study of neutralizing antibodies and disease progression in HIV-1-infected subjects

Sera from human immunodeficiency virus-1-infected participants in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study were tested to assess the association between serum neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) and disease progression. Each of 14 pairs, retrospectively matched for age, sex, race, and CD4+ lymphocyte numbers early in the study, consisted of a rapid progressor (RP) who developed AIDS and a long-term nonprogressor (LTNP) who remained asymptomatic. Serum samples were drawn early, when all participants were asymptomatic, and late, when the RPs had developed clinical AIDS. The LTNPs and RPs had similar levels of NAbs against primary isolates at the early time point, indicating that NAb levels are not predictive of disease progression; at the late time point, the LTNPs had significantly higher titers because of an increase in the level of serum NAbs in the LTNPs and/or a decrease in the NAbs in the RPs. The patterns of neutralizing activity over time suggest that changes in effective NAbs against different viruses do not occur in parallel.