Human T-cell-leukemia virus type I in post-transfusional spastic paraparesis: complete proviral sequence from uncultured blood cells

Int J Cancer. 1995 Nov 15;63(4):494-9. doi: 10.1002/ijc.2910630406.

Abstract

Human T-cell-leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is the causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). The different disease outcome may be attributable to subtle mutations leading to modification of viral tropism or infectivity. Initial attempts found a very high level of sequence conservation among all HTLV-I strains. However, only one complete proviral DNA sequence is reported from a TSP/HAM patient, with a provirus derived from immortalized lymphocytes, which might be expected to be a leukemogenic variant rather than a neurotropic one. We cloned and sequenced a complete HTLV-I provirus (HTLV-IBoi) derived from the uncultured lymphocytes of a sub-acute post-transfusional TSP/HAM patient with clonal integration of HTLV-I. HTLV-IBoi proviral genome is 9033 bp long, and its overall genetic organization is similar to that of the prototype HTLV-I(ATK), without major deletions or insertions. No premature termination codon was found in the 4 open reading frames of the pX region. Divergence at the nucleotide level of HTLV-IBoi from the reported full-length HTLV-I varies from 1 to 9.4%, and indicates that it corresponds to a cosmopolitan genotype. This study did not identify specific sequences associated with neurotropic strains.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Alternative Splicing
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Base Sequence
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Genes, Viral
  • Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / virology*
  • Male
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Open Reading Frames
  • Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / blood
  • Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / virology*
  • Proviruses / genetics*
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
  • Transfusion Reaction*

Associated data

  • GENBANK/L36905