Kuramitsu M, Okuma K, Horiya M, Sekizuka T, Kaneko N, Saito E, Sokunaga J, Kuroda M, Hamaguchi I. First case of molecularly identified and genetically characterized human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 infection in a pregnant woman in non-endemic Japan.
J Virol Methods 2020;
287:114005. [PMID:
33098958 DOI:
10.1016/j.jviromet.2020.114005]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Revised: 09/19/2020] [Accepted: 10/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 (HTLV-2) is non-endemic in Japan unlike the related HTLV type 1. Previously, although HTLV-2-seropositivity was identified via western blotting in one male blood donor in Japan, there have been no reports of HTLV-2 provirus detection by nucleic acid testing. In this report, one Japanese pregnant woman was clinically diagnosed as being HTLV-2-infected with a line immunoassay for specific antibodies after primary testing through prenatal screening in Japan. In genomic DNA of her peripheral blood mononuclear cells, HTLV-2 proviral genome was detected by nucleic acid testing (three methods) with quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The full-genome sequence of this strain was successfully determined. The identified virus was interestingly characterized as a presumed progenitor of subtypes a and c by recombination region and phylogenetic tree analyses. In conclusion, the present infection is, to our knowledge, the first case of molecularly identified and genetically characterized HTLV-2 infection found via prenatal screening in non-endemic Japan.
Collapse