Defective human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) genomes: no evidence in serologically indeterminate german blood donors but new type detected in established cell lines.
Individuals reactive in antibody screening tests (ELISA) and with one or more reactions to HTLV-1 proteins on Western blotting, but lacking the criteria of a confirmed HTLV infection, are not exceptional in regions with a low prevalence of HTLV-1/-2 infections. PCR analysis of these indeterminate samples, using "diagnostic" pol and tax sets of primers, give negative results. However, expression of HTLV-1 defective proviruses with internal deletions undetectable by PCR with diagnostic primers could have taken place. Seven German HTLV-1 ELISA-reactive blood donors, who showed reactivity also in Western blots against several viral proteins, and twenty haemophiliacs, were examined by nested PCR and/or PCR/Southern hybridisation with primers designed for detection of HTLV-1 defective proviruses. No HTLV-1-specific amplification products were obtained. However, HTLV-1 defective proviruses with large internal deletions were detected in four out of five cell lines established from symptomatic HTLV-1 cases and two in HUT-102 cells. In two amplicons, short inverted rRNA sequences between gag and env fragments of HTLV-1 defective proviruses were revealed. These results do not exclude the presence of defective HTLV-1 proviruses in individuals with indeterminate serology although this is unlikely.
Morozov
V A
VA
Institute of Carcinogenesis, Cancer Research Centre RAMS, Moscow, Russia.
Ellerbrok
H
H
Fleischer
C
C
Brackmann
H H
HH
Pauli
G
G
D001782:Blood Donors; D002460:Cell Line; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies