title: Human T-cell-leukemia virus type I in post-transfusional spastic paraparesis: complete proviral sequence from uncultured blood cells.
abstract: Human T-cell-leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is the causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). The different disease outcome may be attributable to subtle mutations leading to modification of viral tropism or infectivity. Initial attempts found a very high level of sequence conservation among all HTLV-I strains. However, only one complete proviral DNA sequence is reported from a TSP/HAM patient, with a provirus derived from immortalized lymphocytes, which might be expected to be a leukemogenic variant rather than a neurotropic one. We cloned and sequenced a complete HTLV-I provirus (HTLV-IBoi) derived from the uncultured lymphocytes of a sub-acute post-transfusional TSP/HAM patient with clonal integration of HTLV-I. HTLV-IBoi proviral genome is 9033 bp long, and its overall genetic organization is similar to that of the prototype HTLV-I(ATK), without major deletions or insertions. No premature termination codon was found in the 4 open reading frames of the pX region. Divergence at the nucleotide level of HTLV-IBoi from the reported full-length HTLV-I varies from 1 to 9.4%, and indicates that it corresponds to a cosmopolitan genotype. This study did not identify specific sequences associated with neurotropic strains.
authors.affiliation: UPR43 CNRS, Rétrovirus et Rétrotransposons des vertebrés, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bazarbachi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gessain
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saal
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saib
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peries
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: De Thé
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galibert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005814:Genes, Viral; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology*; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D065227:Transfusion Reaction