Isolation of HTLV‐II from a patient with chronic, progressive neurological disease clinically indistinguishable from HTLV‐I‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis

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Abstract
An increasing spectrum of diseases has been shown to be associated with the human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I), most notably a chronic, progressive myelopathy termed HTLV‐I‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis and adult T‐cell leukemia. HTLV‐II is a close relative of HTLV‐I and is structurally similar but molecularly distinct. This virus is endemic in Amerindian populations and a high seroprevalence rate has been observed in intravenous drug abusers. Here, for the first time, we have identified a patient with a chronic, progressive neurological disease clinically indistinguishable from HTLV‐I‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis from whom we have isolated and characterized HTLV‐II in the absence of any other detectable human retrovirus. Antibodies to HTLV were deteced in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid, with typical HTLV‐II banding patterns on Western blots. HTLV‐II viral sequences were detected in high copy number from peripheral lymphocytes by polymerase chain reaction techniques, and cloning and sequencing of the virus revealed a 99.5% homology with prototype HTLV‐II. These results serve to alert the medical community to the possibility that in addition to HTLV‐I, HTLV‐II may be associated with a neurological disorder.