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Temporal dynamics of human T‐lymphotropic virus type I tax mRNA and proviral DNA load in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of human T‐lymphotropic virus type I‐associated myelopathy patients
Author(s) -
Ramirez Eugenio,
Cartier Luis,
Torres Mauricio,
Barria Marcelo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.20844
Subject(s) - tropical spastic paraparesis , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , provirus , virology , myelopathy , virus , human t lymphotropic virus 1 , viral load , human t lymphotropic virus , messenger rna , immunology , deltaretrovirus , biology , real time polymerase chain reaction , polymerase chain reaction , medicine , viral disease , gene , spinal cord , in vitro , genetics , genome , neuroscience , t cell leukemia
Human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I) is the etiologic agent of HTLV‐I‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). High HTLV‐I provirus load and tax mRNA level have been suggested as predictors of disease progression in patients with HAM/TSP, but little is known about the temporal variation in patients. To clarify the role of high proviral and tax mRNA loads and their fluctuations in the pathogenesis of HAM/TSP, we measured proviral load and tax mRNA in serially collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from nine patients with HAM/TSP during a long‐term follow‐up, by use of real‐time polymerase chain reaction using tax primers. The real‐time PCR quantitation revealed a wide range of variation of proviral loads (7.82–97.13 copies per 100 PBMCs) and tax mRNA (0.20–245.30 copies) among HAM/TSP patients. Patients showed three different patterns of HTLV‐I tax mRNA loads during the course of the disease. Tax mRNA load showed a separate evolution with respect to the disease. The dynamic patterns of proviral load and mRNA Tax expression suggest that only the permanent presence of a basal level of tax mRNA, rather than the tax mRNA load, is related to the development of HAM/TSP. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to determine tax mRNA expression at different clinical stages. J. Med. Virol. 79: 782–790, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.