HIV-1 Dual Infected LTNP-EC Patients Developed an Unexpected Antibody Cross-Neutralizing Activity

Abstract

This study evaluated the neutralization breadth in dually infected (DI) HIV-1 long-term non-progressor elite controller patients (LTNP-EC) using a representative minipanel of 6 viruses from 5 different subtypes. Our results showed an improved neutralization breadth in DI LTNP-EC patients when compared with matched LTNP single-infected patients. The role of viral diversity in neutralization was estimated with the Shannon Entropy and the p-distance in viral quasispecies. We found a positive correlation between neutralization breadth and diversity within the viral quasispecies. This correlation could explain why a group of LTNP-EC patients developed a broad neutralizing response despite having undetectable levels of viremia.