Relationships between humoral factors in HIV-1-infected mothers and the occurrence of HIV infection in their infants.

Based on what is known about the biology of HIV-1 vertical transmission, the HIV burden of the mother, maternal immune factors and the integrity of the placental barrier are likely to play major roles. We therefore sought to determine whether the presence of antibodies in sera from 47 HIV-1-infected mothers, including 30 non-transmitting and 17 transmitting mothers, affected the risk of HIV-1 transmission to infants. Our findings showed no significant correlation between the capacity of antibodies to mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and their capacity to induce protection of the child from HIV-1 infection (P = 0.14). Furthermore, no correlation was found between the capacity of maternal antibodies to neutralize in vitro lymphocyte or macrophage heterologous viral infection and the occurrence of in vivo HIV-1 infection in the infant. Sera recovered from five of 12 transmitting mothers and from five of 11 non-transmitting mothers were compared in their capacity to neutralize the viruses drawn from the same individuals. Four out of five maternal isolates from transmitting mothers and all maternal isolates from non-transmitting mothers were sensitive to enhancement of infection mediated by the maternal serum.