The efficacy of interferon-alpha treatment in human T-lymphotropic virus type-I-associated myelopathy.
We investigated the efficacy of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) treatment in 5 patients with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy (HAM). Treatment with IFN-alpha yielded clinical improvement of gait, and sensory and/or sphincter disturbance in 4 out of the 5 HAM patients. IFN-alpha treatment did not bring about uniform changes in lymphocyte subsets or anti-HTLV-I antibody titer of peripheral blood. Although the stimulation indexes to phytohemagglutinin, concanavalin A, and pokeweed mitogen were decreased in the culture of the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) in the 5 HAM patients before the treatment, the stimulation indexes to these mitogens were significantly increased except in 1 case after the IFN-alpha treatment. These changes were based primarily on the depression of the spontaneous proliferation of PBL without mitogen. These results appear to point out a very important phenomenon for the investigation of the pathogenesis of HAM.
Nakamura
T
T
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Shibayama
K
K
Nagasato
K
K
Matsuo
H
H
Tsujihata
M
M
Nagataki
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000494:pharmacology; D011043:Pokeweed Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology
D007370:Interferon Type I; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins; D011043:Pokeweed Mitogens; D003208:Concanavalin A