title: Report of a WHO workshop on the measurement and significance of neutralizing antibody to HIV and SIV. London, 3-5 October 1988.
abstract: Scientific progress on the measurements and biological significance of neutralizing antibodies to HIV and SIV was discussed at a WHO Workshop held at the WHO Collaborating Centre on AIDS at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in London, on 3-5 October 1988. The Workshop was attended by 32 experts from eight countries. The subjects discussed at the workshop were: (1) systems for measurement of neutralizing antibodies; (2) reference reagents and comparative studies of neutralizing assays; (3) epitope characterization; (4) mechanisms of neutralization; (5) role of neutralizing antibodies in vivo and their correlation with disease status and progression. It was stated that accurate and reproducible measurement of HIV neutralization is important to studies of HIV immunobiology, characterization of HIV strains and vaccine development. Several different techniques of neutralizing antibody measurement have been developed, but further studies are required to compare and evaluate these methods. The biological significance of neutralizing antibodies and mechanism of neutralization is not yet well understood. The available data indicate that neutralizing antibodies may be either strain-specific or more broadly reactive within the HIV-1 group. To evaluate reproducibility and variability of different neutralizing antibody assays two international collaborative studies were undertaken. The results of these studies showed that though there was good general agreement in the detection of neutralizing antibodies by diverse assays, variation in this quantitation was found. It was concluded that further standardization is needed. Data presented showed that HIV neutralizing antibodies are produced in natural human infection and in animal models, but no correlation has yet been demonstrated between neutralizing antibody titres and progression to disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Research Unit, Global Programme on AIDS, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology*; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015483:HIV Antibodies; D007202:Indicators and Reagents