Diversity of intrathecal antibody synthesis against HTLV-I and its relation to HTLV-I associated myelopathy.
The humoral immune response against human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) in the central nervous system (CNS) compartment and in the blood was investigated by enzyme immunoassay using 16 synthetic peptides corresponding to HTLV-I core and envelope sequences. We evaluated paired samples of cerebrospinal fluid and serum from HTLV-I seropositive Japanese patients, classified as follows: HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP; n = 39), patients with spinal cord disease ascribed to either HAM/TSP or to some concomitant, HTLV-I-unrelated disease (possible HAM/TSP; n = 6) or carriers without any clinical signs of HAM/TSP (n = 15). HTLV-I-peptide-specific intrathecal antibody synthesis was found in 79% of HAM/TSP patients, but only in 20% of carriers without HAM/TSP. The group of carriers without HAM/TSP showed local synthesis for some peptides (on average 0.3 peptides per patient). In most HAM/TSP patients, however, there was a diverse intrathecal immune response to several HTLV-I synthetic peptides (on average against 3.6 peptides per HAM/TSP patient), most frequently against gag p19 100-130, env gp21 458-488, and env gp46 175-199 and 288-317. The intrathecal antibody synthesis against several HTLV-I determinants may represent a pathogenic immune response in HAM/TSP and is possibly related to the infiltration of virus-infected T-cells in the spinal cord.
Kitze
B
B
Department of Neurology, Göttingen University, Germany.
Usuku
K
K
Izumo
S
S
Nakamura
M
M
Shiraki
H
H
Ijichi
S
S
Yashiki
S
S
Fujiyoshi
T
T
Sonoda
S
S
Osame
M
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000917:Antibody Formation; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000276:immunology; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000276:immunology*; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D010455:Peptides; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins