Acidification modified p24 antigen capture assay in HIV seropositives

The p24 antigen is only detectable in a minority of asymptomatic HIV infected individuals, which is in part felt to be secondary to immune complex formation with p24 antibody. We sought to determine if the recovery of p24 antigen could be enhanced by an acidification procedure in an attempt to dissociate p24 antibody-antigen complexes. We tested 291 HIV antibody positive serum samples in duplicate, comparing the standard Coulter p24 Antigen Assay with the same assay which was modified by pretreating samples for 60 min with 1.5 M glycine (pH 1.85) and then neutralizing the sample with 1.5 M Tris (pH 9.0). Using the assay cutoff (approximately 7.8 pg/ml), the standard assayed sera and the acid pretreated sera were positive in 65/291 (22.3%) and 167/291 (57.4%) of the samples, respectively. This difference between procedures was statistically significant (p < 0.0001) by McNemar chi 2. There was also a statistically significant difference between Walter Reed stages for p24 antigen quantification by ANOVA (p < 0.0001). We have demonstrated that the detection of p24 antigen may be significantly enhanced by acid pretreatment of sera which dissociates immune complexed antigen. We have also shown significant differences exist between Walter Reed stages for quantitative p24 antigen levels. Enhanced detection of p24 antigen may be important prognostically and may allow for the monitoring of antiretroviral therapy.