High incidence of antibodies to HTLV-I tax in blood relatives of adult T cell leukemia patients.
Adult T cell leukemia (ATL) is caused by the human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I). Although the mechanisms of the leukemogenic process are unknown, the tax gene may have a role in this process. Because clustering occurs with HTLV-I and ATL, members of ATL families were examined for antibodies to the tax protein and compared with matched HTLV-I-positive blood donors. To investigate the antibody response to this protein, a plasmid, pBHX-4, was constructed to express a recombinant tax protein (r-tax). For ATL patients and their HTLV-I antibody-positive blood relatives, the rate of seroreactivity with the r-tax protein was 67.3% (35/52), compared with 51.6% (97/188) for HTLV-I antibody-positive control blood donors (P less than .05). The difference between direct offspring of ATL patients and matched HTLV-I blood donors was even greater (84.2% [16/91] vs. 44.2% [42/95]; P less than .005). Thus, tax antibody positivity in direct offspring of ATL patients may reflect differences in time or route of HTLV-I infection. Alternatively, it might reflect genetic differences in host susceptibility or virus strain.
Okayama
A
A
Department of Cancer Biology, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
Chen
Y M
YM
Tachibana
N
N
Shioiri
S
S
Lee
T H
TH
Tsuda
K
K
Essex
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001782:Blood Donors; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005260:Female; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000276:immunology*; D016355:Genes, pX; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010375:Pedigree; D010957:Plasmids; D015995:Prevalence; D015531:Radioimmunoprecipitation Assay; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology
D016356:Gene Products, tax; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies; D011994:Recombinant Proteins