The Journal of Immunology, Vol 147, Issue 3 933-941, Copyright © 1991 by American Association of Immunologists

ARTICLES

Generation and specificity of monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies against human HIV-specific antibodies. I. Cross-reacting idiotopes are expressed in subpopulations of HIV-infected individuals

S Muller, HT Wang, SV Kaveri, S Chattopadhyay and H Kohler
IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation, La Jolla, CA 92037.

In this study we have generated monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies against human monoclonal and polyclonal anti-HIV antibodies in seropositive sera. A human anti-gp41 mAb (H2, IgM kappa) was used to immunize BALB/c mice and to prepare hybridoma anti-antibodies that react with H2 and not with normal human IgM. Similar monoclonal anti- antibodies were made in BALB/c mice immunized with Ig fraction prepared from a pool of HIV-seropositive sera. Both kinds of anti-idiotypic antibodies reacted with antibodies in pools of seropositive sera and with individual seropositive sera but not with normal human Ig or seronegative sera. The Id-positive Ig from single donors were isolated on two different anti-Id immunoabsorbents and shown to bind to p24 and gp120, respectively. The detection and isolation of idiotypically cross- reactive human anti-HIV antibodies from seropositive donors demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of shared Id expressed by antibodies against HIV Ag. The utility of cross-reacting anti- idiotypic antibodies as tools to dissect the network regulation of the anti-viral immunity in AIDS is discussed.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Muller, D. H. Margolin, P. L. Nara, W. G. Alvord, and H. Kohler Stimulation of HIV-1-neutralizing antibodies in simian HIV-IIIB-infected macaques PNAS, January 6, 1998; 95(1): 276 - 281. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]