title: Delayed Seroconversion to HTLV-II Is Associated with a Stop-Codon Mutation in the pol Gene.
abstract: A known HIV-1-positive intravenous drug user was found to be human T cell lymphoma/leukemia virus-II (HTLV-II) DNA positive by polymerase chain reaction but seronegative in a screening ELISA. He was consistently DNA positive but took 2 years to fully seroconvert. Sequencing of the HTLV-II strain in his cultured T lymphocytes indicated that it is a prototypical type A strain with no major differences in the long terminal repeat DNA sequence, nor major amino acid differences in the Gag, Env, Tax, and Rex proteins. However, a mutation in its pol gene created a stop codon at amino acid 543 of the Pol protein, a region that encodes for the RNase function. This mutation may account for the subject's slow seroconversion.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Medicine, Upstate Medical University , Syracuse, New York.
authors.forename: Syamalima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dube
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Medicine, Upstate Medical University , Syracuse, New York.
authors.forename: Dipak K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Dube
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Medicine, Upstate Medical University , Syracuse, New York.
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Infectious Diseases, Staten Island Hospital , Staten Island, New York.
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Glaser
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Medicine, Upstate Medical University , Syracuse, New York.
authors.forename: Bernard J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Poiesz
mesh_terms: D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D018388:Codon, Terminator; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015751:Genes, pol; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D000069078:Seroconversion; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D018388:Codon, Terminator; D004279:DNA, Viral
keywords: HTLV-II; mutation; seroconverter