IMMUNOGLOBULIN-A AND IMMUNOGLOBULIN-M PATTERNS TO HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS DURING RECURRENT INFECTION IN PATIENTS WITH AIDS USING A MODIFIED WESTERN-BLOT

Immunoglobulin A and M patterns to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) were i nvestigated in sera from actively HCMV infected AIDS patients (n = 61) and healthy HCMV seropositive controls (n = 28) by a Western blot met hod (modi-blotting) and ELISA. The Western blot showed a higher detect ion rate for both IgA (78.7% vs. 52.5%) and IgM (83.6% vs. 13.1%) than ELISA in the immunocompromised patients suffering from active HCMV in fection. Of the healthy seropositive individuals, 35.7% and 21.4% had a weak positive IgA- and IgM-class antibody reactivity respectively wi th HCMV-specific bands in the immunoblot. Immunoglobulins M and A were not detected by ELISA in the healthy control group. Immunoreactions i n this group were restricted to viral polypeptides with M(r) of 68 kDa and 123 kDa. Additional bands were found in the actively infected pat ients only and were observed more frequently with IgA than IgM (47.5% vs. 29.5%). Results from the present study indicate, that using a sens itive Western blot technique, a higher serologic detection rate of act ive recurrent infection is achieved in AIDS patients. Nevertheless, im munoglobulin A and M are detected in a certain percentage of HCMV-sero positive healthy individuals not suffering from active HCMV infection. Broader immune reactions of HCMV-IgA as determined by HCMV Western bl ot assay are associated with an active infection, but were not present in all the actively infected patients.