A human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection-enhancing factor in seropositive sera.

While testing sera for Human Immunodeficiency Virus neutralizing antibody titers, three sera were identified which had the ability to enhance infectivity of the virus. The sera were from three different individuals residing in Nashville, TN. The enhancing factor was not removed by either filtration through 0.05 micron filters or by incubation for one hour with a stoichiometric amount of protein A sepharose. Two of the sera were able to enhance infection by two divergent isolates (HTLV-IIIB and HTLV-IIIRF) while one was only capable of enhancing infection of target cells by HTLV-IIIB. None of the sera induced syncytium formation in chronic HIV-infected cells. The findings suggest that the substance is neither a virus nor an IgG class 1 or 2.