Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviral load in cerebrospinal fluid: a new criterion for the diagnosis of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis?

Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is associated with accumulation of HTLV-I-infected T cells in the central nervous system (CNS). However, data on HTLV-I proviral load in the CNS at the asymptomatic stage are still lacking. We measured HTLV-I proviral load in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cells from 17 patients with HAM/TSP and 25 asymptomatic carriers. The percentage of HTLV-I-infected cells in CSF cells and the CSF cell : peripheral blood mononuclear cell HTLV-I proviral load ratio were always >10% and >1, respectively, in the patients with HAM/TSP but were always <10% and <1, respectively, in the asymptomatic carriers. We propose that determination of HTLV-I proviral load in CSF cells should be included as a new parameter for the diagnosis of HAM/TSP.

[1]  M. Nakagawa,et al.  Immunocytochemical Analysis of the Cellular Infiltrate in the Spinal Cord Lesions in HTLV‐I‐Associated Myelopathy , 1993, Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology.

[2]  T. Fujiyoshi,et al.  HTLV-I proviral DNA amount correlates with infiltrating CD4+ lymphocytes in the spinal cord from patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy , 1994, Journal of Neuroimmunology.

[3]  S. Izumo,et al.  Analysis Of Htlv-I Proviral Load In 202 Ham/Tsp Patients And 243 Asymptomatic Htlv-I Carriers: High Proviral Load Strongly Predisposes To Ham/Tsp , 1998 .

[4]  A. Manns,et al.  Human T-lymphotropic virus type I infection , 1999, The Lancet.

[5]  Y. Tanaka,et al.  Detection of human T-lymphotropic virus type I p40tax protein in cerebrospinal fluid cells from patients with human T-lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. , 1999, Journal of neurovirology.

[6]  C. Bianco,et al.  An inverse correlation of HTLV-I viral load in CSF and intrathecal synthesis of HTLV-I antibodies in TSP/HAM , 1999, Neurology.

[7]  A. Lézin,et al.  Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3, matrix metalloproteinase 9, and neopterin in the cerebrospinal fluid: preferential presence in HTLV type I-infected neurologic patients versus healthy virus carriers. , 2000, AIDS research and human retroviruses.

[8]  S. Wain-Hobson,et al.  Common human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) integration sites in cerebrospinal fluid and blood lymphocytes of patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis indicate that HTLV-1 crosses the blood-brain barrier via clonal HTLV-1-infected cells. , 2000, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[9]  John Greenwood,et al.  Interactions between Brain Endothelial Cells and Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1-Infected Lymphocytes: Mechanisms of Viral Entry into the Central Nervous System , 2000, Journal of Virology.

[10]  R. Gonçalves,et al.  Diagnosis of HAM/TSP based on CSF proviral HTLV-I DNA and HTLV-I antibody index , 2001, Neurology.

[11]  P. Cabre,et al.  MS and neuromyelitis optica in Martinique (French West Indies) , 2001, Neurology.

[12]  Masahiro Nagai,et al.  Increased HTLV‐I proviral load and preferential expansion of HTLV‐I tax‐specific CD8+ T cells in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with HAM/TSP , 2001, Annals of neurology.

[13]  S. Jacobson.  Immunopathogenesis of human T cell lymphotropic virus type I-associated neurologic disease. , 2002, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[14]  A. Lézin,et al.  Quantitation of HTLV-I proviral load by a TaqMan real-time PCR assay. , 2002, Journal of virological methods.

[15]  L. Chimelli,et al.  Pathological and virological assessment of acute HTLV-I-associated myelopathy complicated with encephalopathy and systemic inflammation , 2003, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[16]  C. Bangham,et al.  The immune control and cell-to-cell spread of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1. , 2003, The Journal of general virology.