IMMUNIZATION OF HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS WITH RGP160 - MODULATION OF ANTI-RGP120 ANTIBODY SPECTROTYPE

HIV-1 infection results in progressive failure of the immune system wi th decline in the number and/or function of B-cell clones originally r ecruited in specific humoral responses. Spectrotypic analysis, done by isoelectric focusing and reverse blotting (IEF-RB), is one technique for evaluating the activity and the number of specific B-cell clones a nd is adaptable to the direct measurement of antibodies to conformatio nally intact epitopes. The anti-HIV-1 (IIIB) rgp120 spectrotype was me asured in 30 early-stage HIV-infected volunteers undergoing vaccine th erapy with recombinant gp160 (rgp160). Twenty-five of the patients dis played a clear oligoclonal banding pattern; seven (28%) showed the sam e pattern in all samples, while 18 (72%) showed changes. Ten of the la tter had an increase in band intensity over the course of immunization , and eight had an increase in both band intensity and number of bands . In contrast, serum samples from eight patients receiving placebo (al um) showed no changes over a comparable period. These findings suggest that vaccine therapy with rgp160 may be able to expand the anti-HIV-1 (LAI) gp120 B-cell clone pool in some HIV-infected patients as well a s increase antibody synthesis by established B-cell clones recruited d uring natural infection. These data provide further evidence that post infection vaccination may provide an alternative strategy in the treat ment of chronic viral diseases.