title: Detection of HTLV-I tax-rex and pol gene sequences of thymus gland in a large group of patients with myasthenia gravis.
abstract: We report in this study the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the amplification of the genomic DNA, isolated from thymic tissue, using the primers flanking HTLV-I/II tax-rex genes and the sequence method to analyze the HTLV-I pol sequence of 27 Italian patients with myasthenia gravis. These molecular methods showed that 92.5% of patients tested positive for tax gene and 55% for pol genes; 55.5% samples were positive for both the tax gene of HTLV-I/II, and the pol gene of HTLV-I. Histologic investigation of the thymus showed that 15 samples had thymic hyperplasia, 93% tested positive for the tax gene, and 40% tested positive for both the tax and pol genes of HTLV-I. In contrast, 91.6% of thymoma-positive samples were positive for tax gene I/II and 75% positive for both genes, tax and pol type I. The sequence analysis of PCR product for tax and pol genes confirmed that these amplified products were HTLV-I, with minimal variations. Our date suggested that either HTLV-I or part of the virus genome is involved in the etiopathogenesis of myasthenia gravis.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di diagnostica di Laboratorio-Sezione di Microbiologia, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Spedali Civili, Piazzale Spedale Civili 1, Brescia, Italy. manca@master.cci.unibs.it
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Manca
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Perandin
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: De Simone
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giannini
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonifati
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Angelini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D016355:Genes, pX / Q000235:genetics*; D015751:Genes, pol / Q000235:genetics*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000821:virology*