New Insights into Prevalence, Genetic Diversity, and Proviral Load of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Types 1 and 2 in Pregnant Women in Gabon in Equatorial Central Africa
- 1 November 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Journal of Clinical Microbiology
- Vol. 46 (11), 3607-3614
- https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.01249-08
Abstract
Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is highly endemic in areas of central Africa; mother-to-child transmission and sexual transmission are considered to be the predominant routes. To determine the prevalence and subtypes of HTLV-1/2 in pregnant women in Gabon, we conducted an epidemiological survey in the five main cities of the country. In 907 samples, the HTLV-1 seroprevalence was 2.1%, which is lower than that previously reported. Only one case of HTLV-2 infection was found. The HTLV-1 seroprevalence increased with age and differed between regions ( P ≤ 0.05), with the highest prevalence (5%) in the southeastern region. A wide range of HTLV-1 proviral loads was observed among the infected women. The level of the proviral load was correlated with a high HTLV-1 antibody titer ( P ≤ 0.02). Sequencing of HTLV-1 env and long terminal repeat fragments showed that all but one strain belonged to the central African subtype B; the outlier was of cosmopolitan subtype A. The new strains of subtype B exhibited wide genetic diversity, but there was no evidence of clustering of specific genomes within geographical regions of the country. Some strains were closely related to simian T-cell leukemia virus type 1 strains of great apes, suggesting that in these areas some HTLV-1 strains could arise from relatively recent interspecies transmission. The sole HTLV-2 strain belonged to subtype B. In this study we showed that the prevalence of HTLV-1 in the southeast is one of the highest in the world for pregnant women.Keywords
This publication has 64 references indexed in Scilit:
- MEGA: A biologist-centric software for evolutionary analysis of DNA and protein sequencesBriefings in Bioinformatics, 2008
- Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Subtype C Melanesian Genetic Variants of the Vanuatu Archipelago and Solomon Islands Share a Common AncestorThe Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2007
- Human T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma virus type 1-associated infective dermatitis in Africa: a report of five cases from SenegalBritish Journal of Dermatology, 2004
- High Seroprevalence of Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 in Blood Donors in Guyana and Molecular and Phylogenetic Analysis of New Strains in the Guyana Shelf (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana)Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2004
- Caloramator viterbensis sp. nov., a novel thermophilic, glycerol-fermenting bacterium isolated from a hot spring in ItalyInternational Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 2002
- Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of a Human T Cell Leukemia Virus Type 2 Strain from French GuianaAIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 2001
- Mother-to-child transmission of human T-cell-leukemia/lymphoma virus type I: Implication of high antiviral antibody titer and high proviral load in carrier mothersInternational Journal of Cancer, 1999
- Non‐hodgkin lymphoma in gabon and its relation to HTLV‐IInternational Journal of Cancer, 1993
- ANTIBODIES TO HUMAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS TYPE-I IN PATIENTS WITH TROPICAL SPASTIC PARAPARESISThe Lancet, 1985
- Detection and isolation of type C retrovirus particles from fresh and cultured lymphocytes of a patient with cutaneous T-cell lymphomaProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1980