Stephens PC, Heimer R, Jariwala-Freeman B, Griffith B; HIV Infection in Women Conference.
Program Abstr HIV Infect Women Conf HIV Infect Women Conf 1995 Wash DC. 1995 Feb 22-24; S31.
Epidemiology & Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Objectives: (1) To develop/deploy a quantitative microculture assay (QMA) able to determine viral load in a variety of body fluids; (2) In pilot studies, (a) determine the relative viral load in menstrual, cervicovaginal, and mixed fluids in the presence and absence of seminal plasma. (b) compare those levels with peripheral blood levels, (c) initiate use of QMA as a real-time test of effectiveness of woman-controlled virucides and/or vaginally-delivered vaccine. Methods: A QMA for HIV-1 was developed and standardized to current techniques. In vitro, uninfected menstrual, cervicovaginal fluids, and peripheral blood were infected with wild-type HIV-1 stock and cocultured with uninfected PBMC's. Cultures were sampled weekly for 21 days and tested for p24 AG in the supernatant. Viral load calculation was calculated by end point dilution. Virus in PBMC's serves as control. Results: (1) Compared to controls, HIV-1 viral recovery from menstrual/cervicovaginal fluids was 40%. In contrast recovery from peripheral blood was 4%. (2) Tests are ongoing to (a) determine in vivo recovery from HIV+ women and (b) the effect of seminal fluid on viral growth. Conclusions: Convention holds menstrual fluid to be unfavorable to HIV-1 growth due to (a) high heparin content, (b) age-related loss of infectivity of lymphocytes, and (c) dilution with vaginal fluids. (1) Results from pilot data indicate higher recovery and may add to understanding both female-to-female and vertical transmission. (2) QMA can contribute to rapid assessment of vaginal vaccine candidates and woman-controlled viricide effectiveness.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Body Fluids
- Disease Transmission, Vertical
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- HIV-1
- Humans
- In Vitro
- Menstruation
- Vagina
- Viral Load
- transmission
Other ID:
UI: 102214802
From Meeting Abstracts