Differential Immune Responsiveness to the Immunodominant Epitopes of Regulatory Proteins (tax and rex) in Human T Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type I-Associated Myelopathy
- 1 March 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 169 (3) , 496-503
- https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/169.3.496
Abstract
Infection by human T cell Iymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is etiologically linked with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) or adult T cell leukemia (ATL). To evaluate the contribution of the viral regulatory proteins tax and rex during the development of disease, antibody responses to these proteins were analyzed in patients with HAM (n = 28) or ATL (n = 48) and in asymptomatic carriers (n = 69). Epitope mapping analysis identified immunodominant epitopes towards the amino terminus (Tax8106-125) and at the carboxyl terminus (Tax22316-335, Tax23331-350, and Tax24336-353) of tax and the amino terminus (Rex11-20, Rex216-35, Rex446-65, and Rex676-95) of rex. Analysis of antibody reactivity to these immunodominant epitopes demonstrated preferential reactivity to Tax8, Tax22, Tax23, and Tax24 (71%-93%) and to Rex4 and Rex6 (52%) in patients with HAM when compared with reactivities in ATL patients (4%-31% for tax and 19%-24% for rex) or asymptomatic carriers (27%-37% for tax and 7%-23% for rex). In contrast, antibody responses to the immunodominant epitopes of the env proteins of HTLV-I (MTA, Envl, Env5)weresimilar in all of three clinicalgroups. Thus, differentialimmune responsiveness to the immunodominant epitopes of tax and rex in patients withHAM mayplaya role in disease pathogenesis in HTLV-I-infected persons.Keywords
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