Sera collection from 255 clinically diagnosed AIDS and ARC patients were analyzed for antibodies to HIV and HTLV-I by Western blot and particle agglutination methods respectively. Antibodies to HIV were detected in 37.3% of the sera collected as compared to 5.5% for HTLV-I. Most (95%) of the HIV positive sera had dual reactivity to both HIV-I and HIV-2. Antibodies to HTLV-1 were more frequently detected in HIV positive sera (11.58%) than in HIV negative sera (1.88%). Conversely, antibodies to HIV were detected twice as frequently in HTLV-1 positive sera (78.6%) than in HTLV-1 negative sera (34.85%).

AIDS-Related Complex↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Comparative analysis of HIV-1 and HIV-2 indeterminate western blot patterns.

A comparison of HIV-1 and HIV-2 indeterminate Western blot patterns of Ghanaian sera collected between 1989 and 1990 was made. Antibodies to group specific antigen (GAG) gene products were most frequently detected both HIV-1 and HIV-2 indeterminate sera. HIV-2 GAG gene product p26 was shown to be a non-specific indicator of infection. Antibody to gp120, and envelope gene product of HIV-1 never occurred in indeterminate sera whereas antibodies to all the envelope gene products of HIV-2 were detected in indeterminate sera.

Blotting, Western↗