HTLV type 1 genetic types among native descendants in Argentina.
The province of San Salvador de Jujuy, located in the northwest of Argentina, is a highly endemic area for HTLV-1 infection and a foci of tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP). Therefore, to better understand this, we carried out a genetic characterization of a large set of HTLV-1 strains (n = 65) of descendants of Amerindians from this region. The LTR and env regions were analyzed. The genetic analysis showed that all of these new HTLV-1 isolates from Argentina belong to the Transcontinental subgroup A of the HTLV-1a Cosmopolitan subtype, with the exception of three isolates that cluster within the Japanese subgroup B. Interestingly, the majority of the sequences from Jujuy province belonged to a distinct cluster within the Latin America Transcontinental subgroup, referred to here as the Jujuy subcluster, and were characterized by specific signatures in the LTR. Given that the samples analyzed in this study belong to the Amerindian population and the high prevalence of HTLV-1 in Jujuy in contrast to the low prevalence of this virus in the country, it could be that HTLV-1aA was spread in Argentina from the Amerindians to the cosmopolitan population. Moreover, this is the first report of an HTLV-1aB or Japanese subgroup in descendants of non-Japanese people in South America.
Gastaldello
René
R
Laboratory of Human Lymphotropic Viruses, Institute of Virology, School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina.
Iñiguez
Alena Mayo
AM
Otsuki
Koko
K
Lamas
Gabriela
G
Balangero
Marcos
M
Barbas
María Gabriela
MG
Mangano
Andrea
A
Sen
Luisa
L
Maturano
Eduardo
E
Remondegui
Carlos
C
Vicente
Ana Carolina Paulo
AC
Gallego
Sandra
S
D001118:Argentina; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017354:Point Mutation; D044382:Population Groups; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences
D015686:Gene Products, env; D012367:RNA, Viral