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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2000, p. 4049-4057, Vol. 38, No. 11
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Gag Indeterminate Western Blot Patterns in Central Africa: Relationship to Plasmodium falciparum Infection

Renaud Mahieux,^1,*, Peter Horal,² Philippe Mauclère,^1, Odile Mercereau-Puijalon,³ Micheline Guillotte,³ Laurent Meertens,^1, Edward Murphy,⁴ and Antoine Gessain^1,

Unité d'Epidémiologie des Virus Oncogènes¹ and Unité d'Immunologie Moléculaire des Parasites, CNRS URA 1960,³ Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; Department of Clinical Virology, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden²; and Departments of Laboratory Medicine, Medicine and Epidemiology/Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California⁴

Received 25 May 2000/Returned for modification 10 July 2000/Accepted 23 August 2000

To gain insight on the significance of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) indeterminate serological reactivities, we studied villagers of South Cameroon, focusing on a frequent and specific HTLV-1 Gag indeterminate profile (HGIP) pattern (gag p19, p26, p28, and p30 without p24 or Env gp21 and gp46). Among the 102 sera studied, 29 from all age groups had a stable HGIP pattern over a period of 4 years. There was no epidemiological evidence for sexual or vertical transmission of HGIP. Seventy-five percent of HGIP sera reacted positively on MT2 HTLV-1-infected cells by immunofluorescence assay. However, we could not isolate any HTLV-1 virus or detect the presence of p19 Gag protein in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from individuals with strong HGIP reactivity. PCR experiments conducted with primers for HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 (HTLV-1/2 primers) encompassing different regions of the virus did not yield HTLV-1/2 proviral sequences from individuals with HGIP. Using 11 peptides corresponding to HTLV-1 or HTLV-2 immunodominant B epitopes in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, one epitope corresponding to the Gag p19 carboxyl terminus was identified in 75% of HGIP sera, while it was recognized by only 41% of confirmed HTLV-1-positive sera. A positive correlation between HTLV-1 optical density values and titers of antibody to Plasmodium falciparum was also demonstrated. Finally, passage of sera through a P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte-coupled column was shown to specifically abrogate HGIP reactivity but not the HTLV-1 pattern, suggesting the existence of cross-reactivity between HTLV-1 Gag proteins and malaria-derived antigens. These data suggest that in Central Africa, this frequent and specific Western blot is not caused by HTLV-1 infection but could instead be associated with P. falciparum infection.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité d'Oncologie Virale, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris cedex 15, France. Phone: 33-1-45-68-89-06. Fax: 33-1-40-61-34-65. E-mail: rmahieux{at}pasteur.fr.

Present address: Unité d'Oncologie Virale, CNRS URA 1930, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2000, p. 4049-4057, Vol. 38, No. 11
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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