Globin haplotypes of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I-infected individuals in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, suggest a post-Columbian African origin of this virus.
The city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, has sociodemographic characteristics similar to some African cities. Up to now, it has had the highest prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infection (1.74%) in the country. To investigate which strains of HTLV-I are circulating in Salvador, we studied isolates from 82 patients infected with HTLV-I: 19 from the general population, 21 from pregnant women, 16 from intravenous drug users, and 26 from patients and their family attending a neurologic clinic. Phylogenetic analysis from part of the LTR fragments showed that most of these isolates belonged to the Transcontinental subgroup of the Cosmopolitan subtype (HTLV-Ia). Only one sample from a pregnant woman was closely related to the Japanese subgroup, suggesting recent introduction of a Japanese HTLV-I lineage into Salvador. betaA-Globin haplotypes were examined in 34 infected individuals and found to be atypical, confirming the racial heterogeneity of this population. A total of 20 chromosomes were characterized as Central African Republic (CAR) haplotype (29.4%), 31 (45.6%) were characterized as Benin (BEN) haplotype, and 17 (25%) were characterized as Senegal (SEN) haplotype. Five patients' genotypes (14.7%) were CAR/CAR; 10 (29,4%), BEN/BEN; 9 (26.5%), CAR/BEN; 2 (5.9%), BEN/SEN; and 7 (20.6%), SEN/SEN. One patient's genotype (2.9%) was CAR/SEN. The betaA-globin haplotype distribution in Salvador is unusual compared with other Brazilian states. Our data support the hypothesis of multiple post-Columbian introductions of African HTLV-Ia strains in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
Alcantara
Luiz Carlos
LC
Gonçalo Moniz Research Center, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Bahia, Brazil.
Van Dooren
Sonia
S
Gonçalves
Marilda Souza
MS
Kashima
Simone
S
Costa
Maria Cristina Ramos
MC
Santos
Fred Luciano Neves
FL
Bittencourt
Achilea Lisboa
AL
Dourado
Inês
I
Filho
Antonio Andrade
AA
Covas
Dimas Tadeu
DT
Vandamme
Anne-Mieke
AM
Galvão-Castro
Bernardo
B
D001938:Brazil; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000821:virology*; D006239:Haplotypes; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences
D005914:Globins