Isolation of HTLV-III from cerebrospinal fluid and neural tissues of patients with neurologic syndromes related to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
We conducted virus-isolation studies on 56 specimens from the nervous system of 45 patients in order to determine whether human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type III (HTLV-III) is directly involved in the pathogenesis of the neurologic disorders frequently encountered in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the AIDS-related complex. We recovered HTLV-III from at least one specimen from 24 of 33 patients with AIDS-related neurologic syndromes. In one patient, HTLV-III was isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid during acute aseptic meningitis associated with HTLV-III seroconversion. HTLV-III was also isolated from cerebrospinal fluid from six of seven patients with AIDS or its related complex and unexplained chronic meningitis. In addition, of 16 patients with AIDS-related dementia, 10 had positive cultures for HTLV-III in cerebrospinal fluid, brain tissue, or both. Furthermore, we cultured HTLV-III from the spinal cord of a patient with myelopathy and from the sural nerve of a patient with peripheral neuropathy. These findings suggest that HTLV-III is neurotropic, is capable of causing acute meningitis, is responsible for AIDS-related chronic meningitis and dementia, and may be the cause of the spinal-cord degeneration and peripheral neuropathy in AIDS and AIDS-related complex.
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology*; D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017977:Deltaretrovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003704:Dementia / Q000209:etiology; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008581:Meningitis / Q000382:microbiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009417:Nerve Tissue / Q000382:microbiology*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology*; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D013118:Spinal Cord Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D013577:Syndrome