Mechanisms of HIV non-progression; robust and sustained CD4+ T-cell proliferative responses to p24 antigen correlate with control of viraemia and lack of disease progression after long-term transfusion-acquired HIV-1 infection

Dyer, Wayne B; Zaunders, John J; Yuan, Fang Fang; Wang, Bin; Learmont, Jennifer C; Geczy, Andrew F; Saksena, Nitin K; McPhee, Dale A; Gorry, Paul R; Sullivan, John S

The neutralising antibody (NAb) response is another immune mechanism that may contribute to long term control of viraemia [37] . We recently analysed viral replicative fitness and the strength of NAb responses, and confirmed that NAb titres in long-term infected subjects were inversely proportional to viral load. However, NAb titres in SBBC members were comparatively weaker, and in parallel with CTL responses, were highest in those with detectable viraemia. The presence of strong Nabs did not prevent some SBBC members from developing signs of disease progression [38] . Hence, we suggest that while broad Nabs might be generated due to a crippled infection they do not prevent disease progression, particularly in the absence of antiviral helper T cell responses.