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Impact of serum antibodies to p40 tax gene product in the intrafamilial transmission of human T cell leukemia virus type I
Author(s) -
UMEMOTO MASAKAZU,
TAKE HIROMICHI,
SAWADA TAKASHI
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
pediatrics international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1442-200X
pISSN - 1328-8067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-200x.1994.tb03131.x
Subject(s) - medicine , antibody , transmission (telecommunications) , virus , leukemia , immunology , virology , engineering , electrical engineering
We examined the sera of family members of human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV‐I) seropositive pregnant women who had visited Kagoshima City Hospital since 1986, and studied the routes of transmssion of HTLV‐I. A new enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting the antibody to an HTLV‐I tax gene product, p40 tax , has recently been developed. By this ELISA method, the positive rate of anti‐p40 tax among HTLV‐I seropositive subjects, including 96 pregnant women (index subjects), 26 mothers, 13 husbands and 13 children was investigated. The percentage positive for anti‐p40 tax among pregnant women, mothers, husbands, and children was 41.6, 50, 53.8 and 53.8%, respectively. This means that the positive rate of anti‐p40 tax remains almost constant with increasing age. The rate of mother‐to‐child transmission of HTLV‐I was significantly higher in p40 tax seropositive (29.6%) than in seronegative mothers (8.1%). The positive rate of anti‐p40 tax in transmission from husband to wife (29%) and through blood transfusion (17%) was lower than the overall prevalence (46%). Thus, these data suggest that p40 tax antibodies are associated with the frequency of HTLV‐I transmission and with the differences in the transmission routes.