Premium
HTLV‐1 viral RNA is detected rarely in plasma of HTLV‐1 infected subjects
Author(s) -
Demontis Maria Antonietta,
Sadiq Maaz Tahir,
Golz Simon,
Taylor Graham P.
Publication year - 2015
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.24264
Subject(s) - virology , rna , viral load , asymptomatic , biology , complementary dna , asymptomatic carrier , virus , nested polymerase chain reaction , viral disease , reverse transcriptase , microbiology and biotechnology , polymerase chain reaction , medicine , gene , genetics , pathology
Plasma of patients infected with HTLV‐1 is considered non‐infectious but detection of HTLV‐1 genomic RNA in plasma has been recently reported. The aim of this project was to detect and quantify HTLV‐1 RNA in plasma and assess its potential value in diagnosis and prognosis. RNA from 1 ml of plasma from 65 subjects infected with HTLV‐1 (27 asymptomatic carriers [AC]), 17 patients with HTLV‐1‐associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP), 14 with adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), two co‐infected with HIV, and five with other HTLV‐1‐associated disease, was extracted and reverse transcribed. HTLV‐1 specific nested PCR was performed using primers to amplify the conserved Tax region. All samples were run in quadruplicate, nested PCR products were detected by gel electrophoresis. HTLV‐1 RNA was detected in plasma from 18 (28%) patients, always at a very low copy number (3–13 copies viral cDNA per milliliter of plasma). Mean values of HTLV‐1 proviral load did not differ between patients in whom HTLV‐1 RNA was detected and patients in whom it was not possible to detect HTLV‐1 RNA in plasma. HTLV‐1 genomic RNA can be detected in the plasma of a minority of patients but not at a level or frequency to be useful clinically or diagnostically. Lack of transmission of HTLV‐1 by plasma is due to the rare presence of HTLV‐1 virions, regardless of any other factor. J. Med. Virol. 87:2130–2134, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.