APPARENT ENHANCEMENT OF PERINATAL TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 BY HIGH MATERNAL ANTI-GP160 ANTIBODY TITER

The presence of antibodies able to enhance infection in vitro in sera from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected patients raises the possibility that antibodies exert a deleterious activity during natur al infection, The anti-HIV-1 humoral response and plasma HIV-1 RNA wer e measured in a cohort of 98 infected mothers, included in the French Prospective Study on Pediatric HIV Infection, 49 of whom transmitted H IV to their children, Transmission from mother to child was associated with antibody responses to the envelope gp160 (P = .009 for serum dil ution of 1/400) and to a highly conserved domain of the transmembrane glycoprotein (P = .055 for serum dilution of 1/400) and with plasma HI V-1 RNA levels (P < .0001). Multivariate logistic regression indicated that a high anti-gp160 response and a high plasma virus load are inde pendent risk factors for perinatal transmission of HIV-1 (odds ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-9.9 for anti-gp160; odds ratio, 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-5.0 for virus load).