Demonstration of human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-specific T cell responses from seronegative and polymerase chain reaction-negative persons exposed to HTLV-I.
Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a human retrovirus etiologically linked to adult T cell leukemia and the progressive chronic neurologic disease HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. Described is a method that measures the production of interleukin-2 from HTLV-I synthetic peptide-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of HTLV-I-infected persons. The peptides correspond to immunogenic regions of the HTLV-I Env and Tax proteins. Significantly, this assay demonstrated T cell responses to these HTLV-I peptides from coded PBL samples in 7 of 19 HTLV-I-seronegative polymerase chain reaction-negative persons known to have been exposed to HTLV-I but in none of 16 matched controls without risk factors for exposure (P = .007). The implications of this finding are discussed.
Nishimura
M
M
Neuroimmunology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Kermode
A G
AG
Clerici
M
M
Shearer
G M
GM
Berzofsky
J A
JA
Uchiyama
T
T
Wiktor
S Z
SZ
Pate
E
E
Maloney
B
B
Manns
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D015486:HTLV-I Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D015686:Gene Products, env; D016356:Gene Products, tax; D015486:HTLV-I Antigens; D007376:Interleukin-2