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Human T-lymphotropic virus type I tax polymorphisms in a transmission cohort: no association between sequence
A M Sambor1, M S Pombo de Oliveira, A Farhadi
1Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Objective:
To determine whether a unique human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) transmission cohort containing multiple disease manifestations could be used to establish a relationship between tax gene sequence and HTLV disease expression.
Methods:
DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of the HTLV-infected persons in the cohort. A 1.1-kb fragment of tax was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned. Six to 12 individual clones were sequenced per person.
Results:
Comparison to a reference ATK strain showed numerous differences; however, consensus tax sequences from all persons within the transmission cohort were identical. Intraperson variation was 0.1% to 0.3%. Tax sequences from the index case did not differ from those obtained from a transfusion recipient who developed tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). Tax sequences from the same index case did not differ from sequences obtained from the asymptomatic or ATL phases of a second recipient.
Conclusions:
In this cohort there did not appear to be tax genotypes associated with specific disease manifestations of HTLV infection.