PRESENCE OF NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES TO HETEROLOGOUS HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 ISOLATES IN SERA OF INFECTED INDIVIDUALS IS NOT PREDICTIVE OF RATE OF DISEASE PROGRESSION

These studies were undertaken to examine whether the presence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-neutralizing antibodies in sera of infected individuals would alter the rate of disease progression. HIV-1-infected individuals (n = 87) were initially examined for neutra lizing activity in vitro against both laboratory and tissue culture-ad apted clinical heterologous HIV-1 isolates. The neutralizing activitie s of sera were determined by a 90% or greater reduction in HIV-1 p24 l evels in vitro. In a cross-sectional analysis of all infected individu als, we observed that sera from asymptomatic individuals neutralized a significantly greater number of heterologous HIV-1 isolates than sera from symptomatic patients. Patients who could be followed up longitud inally (n = 24) were then studied to determine the impact of neutraliz ing antibodies on the rate of disease progression. We observed no sign ificant difference between the numbers of HIV-1 isolates neutralized i n vitro by sera from patients who remained clinically stable and by th ose from patients who progressed rapidly. Our data indicated that the presence or absence of neutralizing antibodies to heterologous HIV-1 i solates was not associated with the rate of disease progression.