Zidovudine Resistance Reverse Transcriptase Mutations

rected against envelope glycoproteins gp 160 and gp 120 (in 1 sub-ject, antibodies to gp41 and p31 were also found). Later, we evaluated 25 female regular sex partners of HIV-I-infected men with whom they had repeated unprotected sexual intercourse [5]. Five women had positive results on the PWM-IVAP test, and the detected antibodies were directed against gp160 and gpI20 (in 2 cases against p24). Throughout 1 year of follow-up, all 25 women continued to have unprotected sex, and 3 (all of whom had been negative on the PWM-IVAP test) seroconverted to HIV-I-positive. In both of our studies [3, 5], all PWM-IVAP-negative and-positive subjects were negative for HIV-l infection by serum p24 antigen detection, virus isolation in cell culture, and DNA polymerase chain reaction with the use of oligonucleotides derived from the pol and env sequences. Even though the small number of patients in our study does not allow any definitive conclusions, we could hypothesize that, in our series, PWM-IVAP-positive subjects had possibly been exposed to either low levels of HIV-I antigens or to inactivated virus with no or a time-limited antibody response and lack of infection. There-fore, the production in vitro of anti-HIV-1 antibodies could be considered a "memory " response. In their article, Beretta et al. confirm that the development of a B cell response against the HIV-1 envelope that occurs in particular circumstances is undetectable by conventional serologic assays and probably leads to contain-ment of the infection following exposure to the virus