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Possible association of HTLV‐I infection and dementia
Author(s) -
Lycke J.,
Svennerholm B.,
Svenningsson A.,
Horal P.,
NordqvistBrandt E.,
Andersen O.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1993.tb04216.x
Subject(s) - cerebrospinal fluid , dementia , antibody , medicine , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , immunology , virology , polymerase chain reaction , virus , western blot , antigen , titer , disease , viral disease , in vitro , biology , gene , pathology , biochemistry
We report a Swedish patient with progressive dementia possibly associated with human T cell‐lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I) infection. The clinical investigation revealed no typical sings of other neurological disorders. The patient was probably infected in East‐Asia 35 years before onset of the disease. High titers of specific HTLV‐I antibodies were detectable with solid‐phase peptide ELISA in serum (1:1.600) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (1:20), and the CSF/serum anti‐HTLV‐I antibody ratio indicated intrathecal HTLV‐I antibody synthesis. Western blot for HTLV‐I and polymerase chain reaction with primers selected for the HTLV‐I pol gene were positive in both peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid. HTLV‐I antigen was also demonstrated after in vitro co‐cultivation of mononuclear cells from peripheral blood. Thus, our findings indicate that HTLV‐I infection also may be associated with dementia. In addition, this case report calls attention upon HTLV‐I as a possible etiologic agent to neurological diseases in countries previously spared from the infection.