title: Antibody reactivities to tumor-suppressor protein p53 and HTLV-I Tof, Rex and Tax in HTLV-I-infected people with differing clinical status.
abstract: Since the presence of anti-p53 antibody has been correlated with the mutation and accumulation of p53, the aim of this study was to detect anti-p53 antibody and understand its correlations with anti-Tof, -Rex, or -Tax antibody reactivity in HTLV-I infected people differing in their clinical status. A plasmid (pGEX-Tof) was constructed to express Tof recombinant protein (RP) in Escherichia coli. Serum samples from 50 asymptomatic carriers (ACs), 50 adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and 50 HTLV-I-associated myelopathyltropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients were assayed for reactivity with different RPs by Western immunoblotting. The results showed that 2% of ACs, 4% of ATL patients and 6% of HAM/TSP patients had anti-p53 antibody. Therefore, anti-p53 antibody is not a useful serological marker for clinical management of HTLV-I infected people. Only 1 HAM/TSP patient had anti-Tof antibody whose specificity was further confirmed by antibody competition enzyme immunoassay. This study demonstrates that Tof protein is immunogenic in vivo, suggesting that it plays a role in the life cycle and pathogenesis of HTLV-I. The rate of anti-Rex antibody among HAM/TSP patients was significantly higher than that of ACs or ATL patients. In addition, 50% of ACs, 42% of ATL and 98% of HAM/TSP patients had anti-Tax antibody. McNemar's test showed that the presence of anti-p53 antibody did not have any correlation with the anti-Tax antibody in HTLV-I-infected people, while the correlation between anti-p53 and anti-Rex antibodies or anti-p53 and anti-Tof antibodies cannot be ruled out in this study.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. arthur@ym.edu.tw
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osame
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D016370:Gene Products, rex / Q000276:immunology*; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000276:immunology*; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D015458:Leukemia, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000276:immunology; D010957:Plasmids; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011817:Rabbits; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D016370:Gene Products, rex; D016356:Gene Products, tax; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C072814:tof protein, Human T-lymphotropic virus 1