Comparative humoral responses to HIV-1 p24gag and gp120env in subjects from East Africa and the UK

Elevated levels of circulating tumor necrosis factor alpha in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected Africans living in Sweden

“…We and others have earlier reported the presence of more sustained HIV-specific and nonspecific humoral immune responses in Africans than in Caucasians (1,4). Thus, it can be postulated that increased synthesis of TNF-␣ in Africans could be induced by elevated interleukin-6 levels, which also enhance B-lymphocyte function.…”

“…The levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-␣) in serum are often enhanced in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected Caucasian individuals and seem to increase with progress of the immunodeficiency (4,11). Furthermore, the TNF-␣ levels are even higher in HIV-1-infected Africans living in Africa (1,2).…”

Differences in humoral responses to the p24 antigen between Ethiopian and Swedish human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients may suggest influences from a T-helper 2-like phenotype

“…In contrast, 23 of 39 (59%) asymptomatic and 19 of 47 (40%) symptomatic Swedish patients had p24 antibodies. We confirmed the previously observed elevated anti-p24 IgG S/N levels in the Ethiopians (EA, 5.4 Ϯ 2.9; SA, 3.5 Ϯ 2.8; P Ͻ 0.01, Student's t test; ES, 5.4 Ϯ 2.9; SS, 2.2 Ϯ 1.9; P Ͻ 0.001, Student's t test) and Africans (7.5 Ϯ 5.59) compared to those in the Swedes (1,10). The level of antibodies to HIV-1 rp17/24 was neither proportional to the level of p24 antigen present in serum (analysis of variance) nor differed between HIV-1 subtypes (Fig.…”

“…Some aspects of infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) differ between African and European or American patients. African HIV-1-infected patients often show lower levels of p24 antigen and higher levels of p24specific antibodies in serum than those of Western patients (1,9,10). We were interested in characterizing in greater detail the variables that may correlate with these differences between African and Swedish HIV-1-infected patients.…”

Lack of predictive for progression of dissociated circulating P24 antigen in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected black patients

“…Racial heterogeneity for p24 antigenemia has also been emphasized. Indeed, in Black people from the United States [Chaisson et al, 1991;Brown et al, 19911 and Africa [Baillou et al, 1987;Katzenstein et al, 1990;Kaleebu et al, 1991;Brown et al, 1991;Ayehunie et al, 1992;Belec et al, 19931, a lower serum free p24 antigen prevalence than in Caucasians has been documented at asymptomatic to advanced stages of HIV-1 infection.…”