title: Diagnosis of HTLV-I infected seronegative neurological patients by polymerase chain reaction amplification in Martinique.
abstract: HTLV-I is a type C human retrovirus, endemic in Japan, central Africa, South America and the Caribbean, which causes adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma and chronic progressive paraparesis. Some neurological patients with chronic progressive myelopathies, but seronegative for HTLV-I have been reported in Martinique. We performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR), to look for the presence of HTLV-I genomic sequences in those patients. Two primers were chosen for gag and tax genes. Liquid hybridization was performed on the amplified products using an internal 32p labelled oligonucleotide as a probe. The hybridized material was run on a 6% polyacrylamide gel. Forty-three of forty-four seropositive subjects analysed as "positive controls" were positive for gag, but only 16/29 for tax. Twenty HTLV-I seronegative neurological patients with a symptomatology suggesting HAM/TSP were tested: 18 were found positive for at least one of the 2 oligonucleotide pairs. Two "negative controls": Moya-Moya and vascular brain failure were found negative. 8/9 subjects with uninterpretable WB were also studied by PCR, and 8 were found positive for at least one oligo pair. Our conclusion is that PCR methodology is able to detect genetic information related to HTLV-I in a number of cases where classical serology is negative.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Hématologie Expérimentale, Centre Hayem, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: d'Auriol
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Vernant
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ouka
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nérienet
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buisson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neisson-Vernant
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galibert
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Monplaisir
mesh_terms: D015153:Blotting, Western; D002648:Child; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008395:Martinique; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012698:Serologic Tests
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral