HIV type 1-specific IgE in serum of long-term surviving children inhibits HIV type 1 production in vitro.

We previously identified a group of long-term pediatric survivors who had acquired HIV-1 through maternal transmission; had not received antiretroviral therapy; are now >8 years old, in good health, and with no opportunistic infections; and have not failed to thrive, although they have greatly decreased numbers of blood CD4+ T cells (<500/mm(3)). All the children have elevated total serum IgE levels (210-2475 IU/ml) and make anti-HIV-1 IgE or IgE directed against non-HIV-1 specificities (radioimmunoassay, Western blot assay); they have no detectable antigenemia. We have now studied the ability of anti-HIV-1 IgE in serum obtained from these children to regulate (1) production of HIV-1 by interleukin 2/phytohemagglutinin (IL-2/PHA)-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) taken from HIV-1-seronegative donors and infected with a T cell-tropic clone of HIV-1, and (2) transmission of a primary HIV-1 strain from adult AIDS patients to uninfected IL-2/PHA-stimulated PBMCs (p24 core antigen production).