[Comparative evaluation of markers with reverse transcriptase inhibiting antibody in human immunodeficiency virus...

To investigate a non-RI test which is equivalent to the reverse transcriptase inhibiting antibody test, a reverse transcriptase inhibiting antibody was compared to the absolute number of CD-4 or CD-8 cells or CD-4/-8 ratio and also to photodensitometric analysis for western blotting. There is no correlation of the reverse transcriptase with any test for cell numbers and their ratio. In photodensitometry, relative units of anti-p65 and anti-p51 were compared with reverse transcriptase inhibiting antibody. The reverse transcriptase inhibiting antibody showed a higher correlation to the relative unit of p65 antibodies than that of p51 antibodies. The photodensitometric analysis of western blotting for a serum test may be a possible method to find a prognostic marker in HIV-1 infection.