title: Impact of serum antibodies to p40tax gene product in the intrafamilial transmission of human T cell leukemia virus type I.
abstract: We examined the sera of family members of human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) seropositive pregnant women who had visited Kagoshima City Hospital since 1986, and studied the routes of transmission of HTLV-I. A new enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting the antibody to an HTLV-I tax gene product, p40tax, has recently been developed. By this ELISA method, the positive rate of anti-p40tax among HTLV-I seropositive subjects, including 96 pregnant women (index subjects), 26 mothers, 13 husbands, and 13 children was investigated. The percentage positive for anti-p40tax among pregnant women, mothers, husbands, and children was 41.6, 50, 53.8 and 53.8%, respectively. This means that the positive rate of anti-p40tax remains almost constant with increasing age. The rate of mother-to-child transmission of HTLV-I was significantly higher in p40tax seropositive (29.6%) than in seronegative mothers (8.1%). The positive rate of anti-p40tax in transmission from husband to wife (29%) and through blood transfusion (17%) was lower than the overall prevalence (46%). Thus, these data suggest that p40tax antibodies are associated with the frequency of HTLV-I transmission and with the differences in the transmission routes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kagoshima City Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Umemoto
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Take
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawada
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000276:immunology*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D016356:Gene Products, tax