Adaptation of HIV-1 envelope gp120 to humoral immunity at a population level.

By comparing HIV-1 variants from people who became infected at the beginning of the epidemic and from people who have recently contracted the virus, we observed an enhanced resistance of the virus to antibody neutralization over time, accompanied by an increase in the length of the variable loops and in the number of potential N-linked glycosylation sites on the HIV-1 envelope gp120 subunit. The enhanced neutralization resistance of HIV-1 in contemporary seroconverters coincided with the poorer elicitation of neutralizing antibody responses, which may have implications for vaccine design.