Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
12
pubmed:dateCreated
1997-10-10
pubmed:abstractText
The avidity of antibodies for antigens can be measured by determining what remains bound after exposing the antibody-antigen complex to a chaotropic agent such as urea. This method has been gaining popularity for assessing the immune response to the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) surface glycoprotein gp120 (or its counterpart from simian immunodeficiency virus), during natural infection or after subunit vaccination. High-avidity antibodies have been considered to be a possible correlate of protection. We have examined the avidity assay to determine what it, in fact, measures. First, we studied the development of the anti-gp120 response in seroconverting individuals. Urea elution reduced the polyclonal anti-gp120 titers by 3- to 10-fold. After allowing for the consequent reduction in assay sensitivity, there was no obvious change in the rate of development of the high-avidity and unfractionated antibody responses. Furthermore, in the one individual who developed a strong autologous, virus-neutralizing response, the appearance of neutralizing antibodies and high-avidity antibodies did not coincide. Antibodies to the V3 loop, when present, comprised a major fraction of the polyclonal response that survives urea elution. We next examined the effect of urea elution on the binding to gp120 of a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Urea treatment preferentially eluted MAbs to discontinuous rather than continuous epitopes, independent of their affinities. Furthermore, these patterns of epitope stability were unaltered by the presence of polyclonal anti-gp120 antibodies. As most broadly neutralizing anti-gp120 antibodies recognize discontinuous epitopes, this skewing effect must be taken into account when interpreting studies using polyclonal sera.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Aug
pubmed:issn
0889-2229
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
10
pubmed:volume
13
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1007-15
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1997
pubmed:articleTitle
An investigation of the high-avidity antibody response to glycoprotein 120 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
pubmed:affiliation
The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10016, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't