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.
J Clin Microbiol
; 46(11): 3607-14, 2008 Nov.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-18845819
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.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Variação Genética
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Vírus Linfotrópico T Tipo 1 Humano
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Vírus Linfotrópico T Tipo 2 Humano
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Infecções por HTLV-II
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Leucemia-Linfoma de Células T do Adulto
Tipo de estudo:
Prevalence_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Pregnancy
País/Região como assunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2008
Tipo de documento:
Article