Presence of reverse transcriptase in human leukemias and lymphomas

Reverse transcriptase (RT) transcribes viral RNA into DNA to be integrated into the host genome. To study epidemiological aspects of human leukemias and lymphomas which are known to express retroviruses, clinical specimens in this report were assayed for divalent cation-dependent viral-specific RT. The assay was carried out with cells solubilized with a detergent to release RT enzyme. RT was purified with poly(U)-Sepharose which fixed all DNA polymerases and assayed with 4 synthetic homopolymers, oligonucleotide primed-templates, poly(rA)-oligo(dT)12-18 or poly(dA)-oligo(dT)12-18 with Mg2+, poly(rC)-oligo(dG)12-18 or poly(rCm)-oligo(dG)12-18 with Mn2+ as divalent cation and [methyl-3H]thymidine 5'-triphosphate or deoxy[8-3H]guanosine 5-triphosphate respectively. Radioactivity incorporation of the precipitate allows quantitation of RT activity. One Hodgkin's disease, one out of 2 B lymphomas, one out of 2 T lymphomas, eight out of 12 leukemias were found to be positive for RT activity as well as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, known to express RT. The obtained RT activity in hematological malignancies was found to be comparable to positive controls such as RT enzymes purified from avian myeloblastosis and Moloney murine leukemia viruses.