Quantification of HTLV-II proviral copies by competitive polymerase chain reaction in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Italian injecting drug users, central Africans, and Amerindians.

摘要: To better correlate the burden of human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) and II (HTLV-II) infection with diagnostic prognostic markers authors developed a new competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for quantitative determination proviral copy numbers in infected cells. A plasmid was constructed that carried 112-bp fragment from highly conserved region HTLV tax gene further modified by inserting sequence 24 bp. This PCR system can be used quantification HTLV-I HTLV-II DNA as demonstrated using HTLV-I- HTLV-II-infected lines and/or patient material. They determined load peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) 11 Italian injecting drug users (IDUs) this PBMCs 10 seropositive Amerindian Central African individuals endemically ethnic groups. great variation observed number sequences abusers ranging 5-10 to 16.239 copies/100000 There no clear-cut correlation between CD8 count stage HIV-1 therapy. considerable also Amerindians Africans amount provirus geographic origin individuals. (authors)