Maternal Antibody Responses and Nonprimary Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection of HIV-1–Exposed Infants

KM Bialas, D Westreich… - The Journal of …, 2016 - academic.oup.com
KM Bialas, D Westreich, E Cisneros de la Rosa, CS Nelson, LM Kauvar, TM Fu, SR Permar
The Journal of infectious diseases, 2016academic.oup.com
Risk of congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) transmission is highly dependent on the
presence of preexisting maternal immunity, with the lowest rates observed in CMV-
seroimmune populations. Among infants of CMV-seroimmune women, those who are
exposed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have an increased risk of acquiring cCMV
infection as compared to HIV-unexposed infants. To better understand the risk factors of
nonprimary cCMV transmission in HIV-infected women, we performed a case-control study …
Abstract
Risk of congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) transmission is highly dependent on the presence of preexisting maternal immunity, with the lowest rates observed in CMV-seroimmune populations. Among infants of CMV-seroimmune women, those who are exposed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have an increased risk of acquiring cCMV infection as compared to HIV-unexposed infants. To better understand the risk factors of nonprimary cCMV transmission in HIV-infected women, we performed a case-control study in which CMV-specific plasma antibody responses from 19 CMV-transmitting and 57 CMV-nontransmitting women with chronic CMV/HIV coinfection were evaluated for the ability to predict the risk of cCMV infection. Primary multivariable conditional logistic regression analysis revealed an association between epithelial-tropic CMV neutralizing titers and a reduced risk of cCMV transmission (odds ratio [OR], 0.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], .03–.93; P = .04), although this effect was not significant following correction for multiple comparisons (false-discovery rate, 0.12). Exploratory analysis of the CMV specificity of plasma antibodies revealed that immunoglobulin G (IgG) responses against the glycoprotein B (gB) neutralizing epitope AD-2 had a borderline association with low risk of transmission (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, .51–1.00; P = .05), although this was not confirmed in a post hoc plasma anti–AD-2 IgG blocking assay. Our data suggest that maternal neutralizing antibody responses may play a role in protection against cCMV in HIV/CMV-coinfected populations.
Oxford University Press