Potent Intratype Neutralizing Activity Distinguishes Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2) from HIV-1

HIV-2 has a lower pathogenicity and transmission rate than HIV-1. Neutralizing antibodies could be contributing to these observations. Here we explored side by side potency and breadth of intratype and intertype neutralizing activity (NAc) in plasma of 20 HIV-1, 20 HIV-2 and 11 dually HIV-1/2 (HIV-D) seropositive individuals from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Panels of primary isolates, five HIV-1 and five HIV-2, were tested in a plaque reduction assay using U87.CD4-CCR5 cells as targets. Intratype NAc in HIV-2 plasma was found to be considerably more potent, and also broader, than intratype NAc in HIV-1 plasma. This indicates that HIV-2 infected individuals display potent type-specific neutralizing antibodies, whereas such a strong type-specific antibodies are absent in HIV-1 infection. Furthermore, potency of intratype NAc was positively associated with viral load of HIV-1, but not HIV-2, suggesting that NAc in HIV-1 infection is more antigen stimulation-dependent than in HIV-2 infection where plasma viral loads typically are at least tenfold lower than in HIV-1 infection. Intertype NAc of both HIV-1 and HIV-2 infected was instead of low potency. HIV-D subjects had NAc to HIV-2 with similar high potency as singly HIV-2 infected individuals, whereas neutralization of HIV-1 remained poor, indicating that the difference in NAc between HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections depends on the virus itself. We suggest that immunogenicity and/or antigenicity, meaning the neutralization phenotype, of HIV-2 is distinct from HIV-1, and that HIV-2 may display structures that favour triggering of potent neutralizing antibody responses.