Diagnostic testing procedures are needed to confirm the presence of HIV infection at any age. Serological testing identifies HIV antibody generated following immune response to HIV infection. HIV infection is serologically characterized by the development of antibodies to structural and also to regulatory gene products. The diagnosis of HIV infection is usually assessed by serologic detection of antibodies directed against HIV structural proteins (i.e., Gag. Pol, Env). Some reports suggested that antibodies to Nef protein could be detected among seronegative individuals at high risk for HIV infection before the appearance of antibodies to viral structural proteins. In this line, an optimized HIV Nef ELISA was designed. It was found that plasma Nef levels were correlated with plasma HIV RNA levels in untreated disease. This method was able to detect Nef in plasma of about half of subjects treated with drug despite the lack of detectable plasma HIV RNA levels using standard assays. On the other hand, ELISA is most commonly used for the detection of HIV because of its simple methodology (e.g., P24 ELISA kit), but however, stage of disease, real diagnosis of treatment with drug, and differences between untreated subjects and treated individuals (with or without drug resistance) needs to develop more efficient methods in serology field. Some researchers showed that the presence of anti-Tat antibodies may predict a better clinical outcome in HIV-1 infected individuals. Regarding different studies, they were focused on serological detection of HIV against some HIV proteins especially p24 ELISA kit. In this study, we determined the levels of anti-Tat, anti-p24, anti-Nef, anti-Vpu, anti-Vif, anti Vpr, anti-Rev and anti-gp160 antibody responses in untreated (Naïve) and treated subjects.
