Ontogeny of the humoral immune response to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in infants

In a cohort of infants born to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-I)-infected mothers, changes in the levels ofHIV-1 specific antibodies were measured during the first year of life. In uninfected children, the level of antibodies to six HIV-1 antigens (gp120, p66, p41, p31, p24, and p 17) decreased continuously until becoming negative. In contrast, rising levels of one or more specific antibodies were detected in 9 of 12 infected children at a median age of 6 months. At 1 year of age, 8 infants were still asymptomatic and classified as P-l. All had serologic profiles consistent with de novo specific antibody production. In contrast, among the 4 infants who had early disease (class P-2), 3 had no significant rise in antibody to HIV-1. These results indicate that poor immune response, which could result from early infection of the infant, is often asso-ciated with rapid clinical progression. Prospective studies have reported rates of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-I) from seropos-itive mothers to their children varying from 14.4 % to 52 % [I, 2]. About 25 % of infected children develop AIDS during the first year of life; disease progression is much slower in th