HTLV tax and Mycosis Fungoides

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Abstract
Although a causal relation between human T-cell lymphotropic retrovirus type I and type II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II) and adult T-cell leukemia has been well established, the association between HTLVs and the cutaneous T-cell neoplasm mycosis fungoides has remained controversial. Few patients with mycosis fungoides are seropositive for antibodies to structural components of HTLV I and II virions; a typical figure is about 15 percent. When HTLV-I- or HTLV-II-related proviral DNA sequences have been detected, they have often been found to be incomplete1-3. Nonetheless, cultures of peripheral-blood mononuclear cells from the majority of patients with mycosis fungoides produce retrovirus-like particles indistinguishable ultrastructurally from HTLV-I or HTLV-II1,2. Such particles have not been seen in cultures of mononuclear cells from healthy volunteers. In addition, proviral sequences homologous with several regions of HTLV-I or HTLV-II have been detected in a number of cultures by means of DNA amplification1-3. Because of the caveat that some of these sequences may represent human endogenous retroviruses,4 we have initiated a survey using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with Southern blot analysis to probe for HTLV-I or HTLV-II tax in freshly isolated mononuclear cells from patients with mycosis fungoides. Thus far, tax -- the putative transforming gene for these viruses5 -- has not been shown to share homology with any human DNA sequences.