Publication Date:
1989-04-28
Description:
Confirmed infection with HTLV-II (human T cell leukemia virus type II) has been described only in rare cases. The major limitation to serological diagnosis of HTLV-II has been the difficulty of distinguishing HTLV-II from HTLV-I (human T cell leukemia virus type I) infection, because of substantial cross-reactivity between the viruses. A sensitive modification of the polymerase chain reaction method was used to provide unambiguous molecular evidence that a significant proportion of intravenous drug abusers are infected with HTLV, and the majority of these individuals are infected with HTLV-II rather than HTLV-I. Of 23 individuals confirmed by polymerase chain reaction analysis to be infected with HTLV, 21 were identified to be infected with HTLV-II, and 2 were infected with HTLV-I. Molecular identification of an HTLV-II--infected population provides an opportunity to investigate the pathogenicity of HTLV-II in humans.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lee, H -- Swanson, P -- Shorty, V S -- Zack, J A -- Rosenblatt, J D -- Chen, I S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1989 Apr 28;244(4903):471-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Diagnostics Division, Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL 60064.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2655084" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Base Sequence
;
DNA, Viral/analysis
;
DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase
;
Genes, Viral
;
HTLV-I Antibodies/analysis
;
HTLV-I Infections/diagnosis/epidemiology/etiology
;
HTLV-II Antibodies/*analysis
;
HTLV-II Infections/diagnosis/*epidemiology/etiology
;
Human T-lymphotropic virus 1/genetics/immunology
;
Human T-lymphotropic virus 2/genetics/immunology
;
Humans
;
Immunoblotting
;
Immunoenzyme Techniques
;
Louisiana
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
;
Substance-Related Disorders/*complications
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
