[The nervous system involvement in human retroviral infection].
Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a pathogenic retrovirus associated with a chronic progressive myelopathy, termed HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM). A chronic inflammatory process has been implicated in HAM by a pathological study, but the exact mechanism still remains to be elucidated. Our quantitative polymerase chain reaction study indicated that the large increase in the HLTV-I proviral DNA in peripheral blood is associated with the development of HAM. The nucleotide sequence analysis of HTLV-I in central nervous system (CNS) tissue of HAM patients revealed that the sequences of HTLV-I genome were heterogenous in all cases, and that the pX-defective mutants were found frequently in the CNS. Thus, HTLV-I exists as quasispecies in vivo, as shown in the case of human immunodeficiency virus. It is possible that the HTLV-I pX microvariants contribute to the neural damage, since the pX gene products are essential for the transactivation of various cellular genes as well as for viral replication.
Kira
J
J
Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University.
D000818:Animals; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000821:virology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004279:DNA, Viral; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies