title: High human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I proviral DNA load with polyclonal integration in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of French West Indian, Guianese, and African patients with tropical spastic paraparesis.
abstract: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviral integration status was examined by Southern blot analysis in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) DNA from patients presenting a tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) and serological evidence of HTLV-I infection. Surface phenotype and morphological aspects of PBMC were also studied. A polyclonal HTLV-I proviral integration was found in the PBMC of the 10 patients studied irrespective of their geographical origin (French West Indies, French Guiana, and Africa), the duration of their clinical illness, or the HTLV-I antibody titer. Furthermore, by dilution experiments and hypothesizing that only one copy of HTLV-I proviral DNA is present in one cell, we estimated that this HTLV-I integration is present in 3% to 15% of their PBMC. All 10 TSP/HTLV-I patients studied had an average of 10% of their lymphocytes abnormal, presenting either a misshapen nucleus or an adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL)-like feature. Moreover, an elevated CD4/CD8 ratio associated with the presence of activated T cells with a high level of DR expression was observed in most patients. The significant frequency of viral-positive PBMC and the important load of HTLV-I proviral DNA that we observed in TSP/HTLV-I patients might play an important role in the pathogenesis of this recently identified clinico-virological entity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Hématologie Moléculaire, Hôpital Saint-Louis, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gessain
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saal
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gout
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Flandrin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de The
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peries
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sigaux
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002999:Clone Cells; D007560:Cote d'Ivoire; D015342:DNA Probes; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D005616:French Guiana; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000382:microbiology*; D008395:Martinique; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000382:microbiology*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014900:West Indies
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015703:Antigens, CD; D015342:DNA Probes; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins