Diagnosis of HTLV-I infected seronegative neurological patients by polymerase chain reaction amplification in Martinique.
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.
d'Auriol
L
L
Laboratoire d'Hématologie Expérimentale, Centre Hayem, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
Vernant
J C
JC
Ouka
M
M
Nérienet
E
E
Buisson
G
G
Neisson-Vernant
C
C
Galibert
F
F
Monplaisir
N
N
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
D004279:DNA, Viral