Characterization of Antibodies to Human Immunodeficiency Viral Proteins in the Sera of HIV Infected and Non HIV Infected HBsAg Seropositive Patients

This work was designed to characterize the HIV viral antibodies in HIV infected and non-HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients. Fifty non HIV infected (male = 25; female = 25)and 50 HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients (male – n = 25; female – n = 25) aged 6 – 64 years recruited from the medical outpatient department of Baptist Medical Centre, Saki – Oyo State – Nigeria were investigated as test subjects. Fifty apparently healthy HIV and HBsAg seronegative individuals (male = 25; female = 25) aged 4 – 72years were recruited as control subjects. All subjects were counseled and were subjected to HBsAg and HIV immunoassays by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay and Western blot assay. All subjects were monitored for twelve months. The subjects were investigated on recruitment and 12months after recruitment. The result obtained indicated higher frequency of occurrence of each of the HIV antibodies to each of the viral proteins in HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients than in non HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients (94% vs 0% (gp 160,), 84% vs 0% (gp 120), 94% vs 4% (p66), 94% vs 4% (p51), 84% vs 0% (gp 41), 94% vs 0% (p31), 100% vs 24% (p24) and 84% vs 6% (p17) during the first bleeding. The result obtained after 12 months showed a slight difference with the expression of antibody to gp41 by 4% of the non HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients in addition to antibody to p24 or p17 which confirms HIV infection. Some of the non HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients expressed antibodies to the following proteins p66, p51, p24, p17 during the initial investigation and after 12 months. The frequency of occurrence of antibody to p24 obtained in all HIV – HBsAg and some of the non HIV infected HBsAg seropositive patients was higher compared antibodies to other HIV proteins. This recent work has therefore been used to suggest the possibilities of antibodies to HIV viral proteins (p66, p51, p24, p17) in HBsAg seropositive sera. It also confirms an encouraging degree of specificity of antibodies to HIV envelope glycoproteins (gp160, gp120, gp41) in the diagnosis of HIV infection.