title: Isolation of a human T-lymphotropic virus type I strain from Australian aboriginals.
abstract: A human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) strain was isolated in a CD4+ T-lymphocyte culture established from a healthy seropositive Australian Aboriginal. This isolate, identified as HTLV-IMSHR-1, was detected by immunofluorescence with monoclonal antibodies, by the presence of gag-encoded protein p24 in the culture supernatant, and by cocultivation leading to infection and transformation of lymphocytes from an HTLV-I-negative donor. By using the polymerase chain reaction technique, the env gene and segments of the pol and pX regions of the proviral genome of HTLV-I(MSHR-1) were amplified and sequenced. Comparison with the envelope sequences of prototype strains revealed up to 7% divergence at the nucleotide level and 3.1 to 4.3% divergence in the predicted amino acid sequence. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Australian and Melanesian isolates are related. Differential reactivity with monoclonal antibodies suggests that gag protein p19 of HTLV-I(MSHR-1) is also divergent. The potential for antigenic divergence between the prototype HTLV-I isolates and the Austro-Melanesian variants requires further investigation, because it would have implications for serodiagnosis and vaccine development.
authors.affiliation: Menzies School of Health Research, Casuarina, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bastian
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gardner
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D002459:Cell Fusion / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D015752:Genes, env / Q000235:genetics*; D015751:Genes, pol / Q000235:genetics*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic; C047061:internal protein p24, Human T-lymphotropic virus 2