title: High rate of human T lymphotropic virus type IIa infection in HIV type 1-infected intravenous drug abusers in Ireland.
abstract: Serological and molecular analyses of a cohort of HIV-1-infected intravenous drug abusers (IVDAs) (n = 103) in Dublin, Ireland have demonstrated that 15 of 103 (14.6%) were infected with HTLV-II, which is the highest infection rate yet recorded for any European country. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the env region of the provirus demonstrated that the infection involved only the HTLV-IIa subtype; the HTLV-IIb subtype was not detected. Phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the long terminal repeat (LTR) confirmed infection with the HTLV-IIa subtype, and demonstrated that the viruses clustered closely with HTLV-IIa isolates from North American IVDAs. Previous observations that IVDAs in southern Europe, specifically Spain and Italy, appear to be infected predominantly with the HTLV-IIb subtype, along with the present report and evidence that IVDAs in Sweden are infected with the HTLV-IIa subtype, suggest different origins of HTLV-II infection in Europe.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Ireland.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mulcahy
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sheehy
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: O'Riordan
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015497:HIV-1; D015482:HTLV-II Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D015482:HTLV-II Antibodies; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins