Beilke M A, Japa S, Vinson D G
Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, and Tulane/Louisiana State University/Charity General Clinical Research Center, New Orleans 70118, USA.
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Hum Retrovirol. 1998 Apr 15;17(5):391-7. doi: 10.1097/00042560-199804150-00002.
Coinfections with HIV-1 and HTLV-I or HTLV-II have been associated with unique immunophenotypes and an increased risk for development of neurodegenerative conditions. These findings may result from an increased HTLV-I or II viral burden in dually infected individuals. To investigate this possibility, HTLV-I/II tax/rex messenger RNA and viral antigen expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were measured in 37 HTLV-I- or HTLV-II-infected subjects with or without HIV-1 coinfection. Tax/rex messenger RNA was detected in 14 of 24 PBMC samples from dually infected subjects, compared with only 1 of 13 PBMC samples from singly infected subjects (58% versus 7%; p < .003). The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay correlated with HTLV-I/II viral antigen detection in PBMC cultures but not with HIV-1 viral load levels in plasma. These findings may provide clues regarding the pathophysiologic consequences of HIV/HTLV-I and HIV/HTLV-II coinfections.
