Question for Long Term Non Progressors and Elite Controllors

[srmn98]

Hello All,

I have a question for the Long Term Non Progressors and Elite Controllers out there. I am wondering if all the bands on your Western Blot were reactive ?

I guess I would like to extend the topic to everybody as well --- how many of you out there had ALL your Western Blot bands turn out reactive ?

Mine all are reactive -- combined with VL undetectable with no meds and CD4 1400, I'm wondering why they are all reactive and if it has something to do with my immune response.

thanks,

erika

[redhotmuslbear]

I guess I would like to extend the topic to everybody as well --- how many of you out there had ALL your Western Blot bands turn out reactive ?  Mine all are reactive -- combined with VL undetectable with no meds and CD4 1400, I'm wondering why they are all reactive and if it has something to do with my immune response.

Given that the Western blot (WB) criteria for a positive result is the presence of at least one band from each of the Env, Gag, and Pol antigens, one's immune response is definitely involved.  The question is whether the appearance of all bands in the blot makes a particular LTNP even more special. 

From what I've read, the appearance of all bands correlates more to la onger time of harboring HIV than to being an LTNP.  There an article here at http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/full/90/3/1133 that I've seen which discusses the phenomenon if you can wade through it.  It's almost like the virus' last laugh on our bodies, causing us to produce more specific antigens.

As for my original WB, that was almost 9 years ago;  and I don't recall seeing a new one amid all of the test results from NIH since 10/05 (I can doublecheck in a few days when I get home. in Alaska now).  I recall my doctor iremarking that the results were "unusual but quite conclusive" when they came back, and weeks later a comment about the WB and not being surprised that my VL could go from 700K to under 400 after amonth of meds.  I'll have to call his office to see if he can pull that report out for me, too.

Cheers,
David

[srmn98]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. I'm curious ... anybody else out there have a Western Blot with all bands reactive ?

Thanks,

Erika

[OzPaul]

Hi Erika

In my case, I don't know the answer. My old labs are all in the USA and I'm living in Australia now. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Cheers
Paul

[Ann]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. I'm curious ... anybody else out there have a Western Blot with all bands reactive ?

Thanks,

Erika

All mine were reactive. I'd been positive for four years before I was diagnosed. I've been positive for ten years now, but I don't quite qualify as a LTNP because my viral load is always detectable and has been as high as in the 90,000s, but as low as 7,000 something. My doctor calls me a long-term SLOW progressor, not non-progressor.

I'm not on meds yet and I'm no-where near needing them either.

Ann

[srmn98]

thanks also, ann and paul.

i think maybe it is time for me to go to the science library !! 



erika

[redhotmuslbear]

I don't quite qualify as a LTNP because my viral load is always detectable and has been as high as in the 90,000s, but as low as 7,000 something. My doctor calls me a long-term SLOW progressor, not non-progressor.

Doesn't the hair-splitting medically-based BS make you want to scream sometimes?  I'm an LTNP based on my labs off meds and my having a B44+ HLA allele, but I'm not an "elite controller," just a "viremic controller," since I keep a viral load in the hundreds.  It's almost as maddening as the "poz but healthy" crap one reads in online profiles.

David