title: Seroepidemiology, viral isolation, and molecular characterization of human T cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I from La Réunion Island, Indian Ocean.
abstract: Data indicate the presence in the Seychelles Islands of a high level of human T cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I (HTLV-I) endemicity as well as the presence of tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). We present here the results of an hospital survey performed since 1988 in La Réunion Island, located in the Indian Ocean southeast of the Seychelles archipelago, aimed at evaluating HTLV-I endemicity, detecting HTLV-I-associated diseases, and characterizing viral isolates. Seven individuals were found to have HTLV-I-specific antibodies in their sera. These include 3 of 257 patients from St. Pierre Hospital, 1 of them exhibiting a typical clinical feature of TSP/HAM (the first described case in this region), 1 blood donor of 3900, and 3 relatives. A further nine individuals exhibiting only "gag-encoded proteins" by Western blot (p19 and/or p24 bands) were found negative by polymerase chain reaction using LTR, pol, and tax HTLV-I specific primers. A long-term T cell line, designated Mel.J, exhibiting T cell activation markers (CD4+, CD25+, HLA-DR+), and producing HTLV-I antigens and viral particles, was established from one of the HTLV-I,-seropositive patients. The sequence of a 522-bp fragment corresponding to the carboxy terminus of gp46 and the majority of gp21 were determined for five HTLV-I-seropositive individuals, including the TSP/HAM patient. Alignment and phylogenetic comparison of these five nucleotide sequences with all the 53 other available HTLV-I env sequences demonstrated that the virus from La Réunion Island belongs to the group of the HTLV-I cosmopolitan subtype and is not related to the Melanesian HTLV-I variants.
authors.affiliation: Unité d'Epidémiologie des Virus Oncogènes, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahieux
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gessain
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Truffert
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vitrac
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hubert
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dandelot
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montchamp-Moreau
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cnudde
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tekaia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Thé
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D015342:DNA Probes; D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007195:Indian Ocean Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D044469:Racial Groups
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes; D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies