Abstract
Partial or complete seroreversion for HIV-1, or incomplete antibody evolution are relatively rare events that have so far only been described in patients treated with HAART early after virus infection. Whether seroreversion is seen in patients treated effectively with HAART years after their acute infection has not been investigated so far. Therefore we have investigated anti-HIV antibody levels in 80 patients treated with HAART during chronic HIV-1 infection, who had an undetectable HIV-1 plasma viral load for at least five years. In none of the patients we observed seroreversion, and there was also no significant decrease or increase in antibody levels in this group of patients. So, successful HAART treatment during chronic HIV-1 infection does not induce seroreversion.
Highlights
Seroreversion, defined as a quantitative decrease in specific antibody levels so that they measure below the cutoff of an assay, can be partial, resulting in the loss of response against one or a few antigens, or complete, with loss of total antibody reactivity
In HCV infection, seroreversion, which is found in 16–23% of the patients, has been associated with virus clearance, but it can be observed in chronic HCV infection [1,2]
HCV seroreversion is often transient, suggesting that antibody levels fluctuate around the cutoff of the assay [2]
Summary
Seroreversion, defined as a quantitative decrease in specific antibody levels so that they measure below the cutoff of an assay, can be partial, resulting in the loss of response against one or a few antigens, or complete, with loss of total antibody reactivity. HCV seroreversion is often transient, suggesting that antibody levels fluctuate around the cutoff of the assay [2]. HCV seroreversion is accompanied in many cases by the absence of viral RNA as detected by PCR, in many other viral infections, clearance of the virus does not induce loss of antibodies.
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