Retrovirus from human T-cell leukemia virus type I-associated myelopathy is the same strain as a prototype human T-cell leukemia virus type I
S. Shirabe, T. Nakamura, M. Tsujihata, S. Nagataki, M. Seiki and M. Yoshida
Department of Viral Oncology, Cancer Institute, Tokyo, Japan.
A retrovirus was isolated from a T-cell line that was established from
lymphocytes in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with human T-cell
leukemia virus type I-associated myelopathy (HAM), and its genome was
sequenced. The nucleotide sequence of the 3' half of the total genome was
identical in 99.5% of the nucleotides to that of the prototype human T-cell
leukemia virus type I that was derived from a patient with adult T-cell
leukemia. These results indicate that the same retrovirus human T-cell
leukemia virus type I is associated with both a neurological disease, HAM,
and a lymphoproliferative disease, adult T-cell leukemia.
