Seronegative HIV-2 carriers in India.
The discordant cases of seronegative, but culture and proviral HIV-2 DNA positive were found in Mumbai, India. This was corroborated by the successful isolation of HIV-2-RNA in culture medium, HIV-2 cDNA sequence determination and the detection of the antigen. The sequence of the isolated HIV-2 genomic RNA does not seem to be altered to the extent that the change will alter antibody binding. Furthermore, antibody from the same individual (even at 8 months from initial sampling) from whom HIV-2 was isolated did not react with the antigen of this strain. Those evidences imply that extremely low or non-production of the antibody may be due to suboptimal immune stimulation due to extremely slow HIV-2 replication. This low virus-load may be responsible for the negative antibody results in the HIV-2 carriers.
Kageyama
S
S
Department of Virology, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
Maniar
J K
JK
Iwasaki
M
M
Zhang
J
J
Saple
D G
DG
Tsuchie
H
H
Tanabe-Tochikura
A
A
Taniguchi
K
K
Shiraki
K
K
Kurimura
T
T
D002353:Carrier State; D002460:Cell Line; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D018023:HIV Seronegativity; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000821:virology; D015498:HIV-2; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology; D019562:Viral Load
D004279:DNA, Viral