Clinical Significance

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by at least two types of Human Immunodeficiency Viruses designated HIV-1 and HIV-2. In addition, some HIV-1 strains have been isolated from AIDS patients in West Africa and designated as HIV-1 subtype O. Serological studies have shown that antibodies may develop to epitopes present in the peptides of the viral core and glycoprotein envelope. While antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 core peptides demonstrate considerable cross reactivity, the antibodies generated by the glycoprotein show less cross-reactivity.

The VITROS anti-HIV 1+2 test uses 4 recombinant antigens (HIV-1 Env 13, HIV-1 Env 10, HIV-1 p24,and HIV-2 Env AL) derived from HIV-1 core, HIV-1 envelope and HIV-2 envelope. HIV-1 Env 13, envelope SOD fusion protein, contains region from both gp 120 and gp 41. HIV-1 Env 10, envelope SOD fusion protein, contains a gp 41 region which extends beyond the C-terminus of Env 13. HIV-1 p24 is derived from full length core protein of HIV-1. HIV-1 Env AL, envelope SOD fusion protein, contains a region from gp 36 of HIV-2.

These antigens detect antibodies to HIV-1 and antibodies from HIV-2 in the same test. The use of these recombinant antigens improves test specificity by avoiding non-specific reactions due to cross-reaction with human cell proteins, which are present in cell lysates. The host organism for all four HIV recombinant antigens is S. cerevisiae (yeast).

_{Source: Vitros ECiQ, HIV c IFU. Pub. No. GEM1256 Version 2.0}