No Evidence of HTLV-II Infection Among Immonoblot Indeterminate Samples Using Nested PCR in Mashhad, Northeast of Iran.
OBJECTIVE
Although HTLV-I infection is endemic in different geographical parts of the world including Northeast of Iran, there have been no documents of HTLV-II infection in this region. It is reported that one possible reason for seroindeterminate state in HTLV western blot is HTLV-II virus. This study aimed to investigate the presence of HTLV-II among blood donors with seroindeterminate western blot results.


METHODS
Three ml whole blood obtained from 50 blood donors referring to Mashhad Blood Transfusion Organization who had reactive Elisa for HTLV-I and seroindeterminate HTLV western blot state. A conventional PCR was applied to detect HTLV-I provirus using specific primers while a nested PCR was designed with specific external and internal primers for the detection of HTLV-II.


RESULTS
The average age of participants, 39 males and 11 females, was 37.12± 14.36 years. The average OD of the Elisa assay was 1.767± 1.195. The most common indeterminate patterns were Rgp46-II alone (n=12, 27.3%), Rgp46-I alone (n=7, 15.9%), and Rgp46-I with GD21 (n=7, 15.9%).After introducing the DNA to the PCR tests, results revealed 10 (20%) HTLV-I PCR positive samples while no HTLV-II positive sample was detected by nested PCR. There were no significant age, blood group, Optical Density of the Elisa assay, and western blot indeterminate pattern differences between HTLV-I PCR positive and negative samples. Conclusion : No HTLV-II positive sample was detected in this study which confirms the absence of HTLV-II infection in this region. However, high frequency of HTLV-I PCR positive samples among the seroindeterminate cases implies on the important role of molecular techniques for further confirmation of the infection.
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran ; Inﬂammation and Inﬂammatory Diseases Research Centre, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Houshang
H
Rafatpanah
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Farhad
F
Fathimoghadam
Research Centre for the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO), Tehran, Iran.
Majid
M
Shahabi
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Iman
I
Eftekharzadeh
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Mohammadreza
M
Hedayati-Moghaddam
Inﬂammation and Inﬂammatory Diseases Research Centre, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Narges
N
Valizadeh
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran ; Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch.
Mohsen
M
Tadayon
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Seyyed Aliakbar
SA
Shamsian
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Hamidreza
H
Bidkhori
Research Centre for HIV/AIDS, HTLV and Viral Hepatitis, Iranian Academic Centre for Education, Culture & Research (ACECR), Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Raheleh
R
Miri
Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, 10 Lebanon.
Ali
A
Bazarbachi
HTLV-I; HTLV-II; Iran; Mashhad; PCR; Seroindeterminate; Western blot