A new HTLV type II subtype A isolate in an HIV type 1-infected prostitute from Cameroon, Central Africa.
Among 332 female sex workers in Douala, Cameroon, 113 were HIV-1 seropositive, 3 were HTLV-I seropositive, and only 1 had specific anti-HTLV-II antibodies. By cocultivation with BJAB cells, an HTLV-II was isolated from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of this 32-year-old woman coinfected by HIV-1. This new African HTLV-II isolate (PH230PCAM) belongs to the molecular subtype A, exhibiting, however, a nucleotide variability of 2.4% and 0.8%, vis-à-vis the MO prototype, in the LTR and in the gp21 env gene, respectively. These data, as well as the previous findings of another HTLV-II subtype A in a Ghanean prostitute, suggest that this viral subtype had been imported into Africa, while the HTLV-II subtype B, described in remote areas of Zaire, Gabon, and Cameroon, could be a genuine African HTLV-II, present in this continent for a long period of time.
D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D002163:Cameroon; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology*; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011477:Sex Work