Abstract
The presence of neutralizing antibody activity (NAb) against HIV-1 and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory antibody (RTIAb) were tested in the sera of 72 HTLV-1 carriers and 61 healthy controls living in Nichinan District, Miyazaki. One of 72 HTLV-1 carriers, a patient with hemophilia, was found to be HIV-1 Ab positive, while all 61 control individuals were HIV-1 Ab (-). Two out of 71 HIV-1 (-) but HTLV-1 carriers and the HIV-1 (+) and HTLV-1 (+) hemophiliac patient had strong RTIAb, while all controls were RTIAb (-). Although the HTLV-1/HIV-1 co-infected hemophiliac patient had strong NAb, while all of 71 HIV-1 (-) but HTLV-1 carriers had no NAb. Overall results suggested that some antigenic determinants of HIV-1 RT which effect the enzyme activity may be weakly cross-reactive to some anti-HTLV-1 antibody. However, the RTIAb (+) sera had no NAb capacity against HIV-1, implying that HIV-RTIAb may not support neutralization against HIV-1 in vivo. The results also suggest that the exposure of HTLV-1 may not contribute to NAb against HIV-1 in HIV-1 infected individuals.
