Defective human T-lymphotrophic virus type I provirus in T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia.
T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia (T-PLL) is a rare form of post-thymic T-cell neoplasm, the aetiology of which remains unknown. We examined human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) provirus in five HTLV-I/II seronegative patients with T-PLL. Southern blotting did not show monoclonal integration of the HTLV-I genome in any of the DNA samples. However, two of the five DNA samples contained an HTLV-I tax sequence. Other sets of oligonucleotide primers for HTLV-I gag, pol, env and LTR regions were all negative. HTLV-I tax gene expression and p40tax antibody were not detected in samples from cases with HTLV-I tax sequence. Our findings suggest that there may be alternative mechanisms involved in HTLV-associated leukaemogenesis, in which HTLV-I genome insertion triggers T-PLL but the deletion of various regions of the integrated provirus subsequently prevents active replication and the expression of the virus.
Kojima
K
K
Division of Haematology, Ehime Prefectural Central Hospital, Ehime, Japan.
Sawada
T
T
Ikezoe
T
T
Matsuo
Y
Y
Kobayashi
H
H
Yano
T
T
Sugimoto
T
T
Imoto
S
S
Nakagawa
T
T
Matsui
T
T
Yasukawa
M
M
Hara
M
M
Taguchi
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000276:immunology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D015463:Leukemia, Prolymphocytic / Q000821:virology*; D015458:Leukemia, T-Cell / Q000821:virology*; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D011533:Proviruses / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral; D016356:Gene Products, tax