Reduced capacity of antibodies from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) group O to neutralize primary isolates of HIV-1 group M viruses

Neutralizing antibody patterns in sera of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) groups M and O to their homologous and heterologous primary isolates were determined in a peripheral blood mononuclear cell-based neutralization assay and correlated with their ability to bind to V3 loop synthetic peptides. Most HIV-1 group M sera (9/16) neutralized HIV-1 group O viruses, whereas fewer group O sera (3/13) only weakly neutralized HIV-1 group M viruses. Group M sera neutralizing HIV-1 group O viruses neutralized other HIV-1 group M viruses with titers of 1:10–1:1280. V3 loop binding capacity of sera did not reflect their neutralizing capacity of the homologous isolate. Despite the reduced neutralizing capacity of group O-infected patients' sera to group M viruses, some group M-infected patients' sera neutralized both HIV-1 group M and O isolates, suggesting that they share some conserved neutralizing epitopes.