title: Genetic evidence of transmission of human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 between spouses.
abstract: Sexual transmission of human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is considered to be an important route of infection in adults. However, no direct evidence has been reported that supports this observation. To address this issue, sequence variations of the gp46 (envelope)-coding region of HTLV-1 were determined in 13 patients infected with HTLV-1 who experienced seroconversion and in their spouses. Twenty-two nucleotide changes that were different from the reference sequence of lambdaATK-1 were identified. However, the gp46 sequences found were identical within each married couple. HTLV-1 proviral DNA loads measured in 11 of these couples varied from 10 to 3430 copies per 10(5) PBMC, and the proviral DNA loads of spouses often differed. This study provides the first genetic confirmation of the transmission of HTLV-1 from a carrier spouse to his/her partner. The findings also suggest that host-related factors play a more important role than do virus-specific factors in determining HTLV-1 proviral DNA load.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II, Miyazaki Medical College, 5200 Kihara, Kiyotake, Miyazaki 889 1601, Japan.
authors.forename: Mutsunori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iga
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okayama
authors.forename: Sherri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stuver
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mitsuya
authors.forename: Nobuyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsubouchi
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000235:genetics*; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011533:Proviruses; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D018454:Spouses
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D015686:Gene Products, env; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic; C055266:gp46 protein, Human T-cell leukemia virus type I