BACKGROUND Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a human retrovirus associated with both HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), which is a chronic neuroinflammatory disease, and adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). The pathogenesis of HAM/TSP is known to be as follows: HTLV-1-infected T cells trigger a hyperimmune response leading to neuroinflammation. However, the...

tropical spastic paraparesis. Clin Infect Dis 2004; 39:939–44. 6. Olindo S, Lézin A, Cabre P, et al. HTLV-1 proviral load in peripheral blood mononuclear cells quantified in 100 HAM/TSP patients: a marker of disease progression. J Neurol Sci 2005; 237:53–9. 7. Jeffery KJ, Usuku K, Hall SE, et al. HLA alleles determine human T-lymphotropic virus-I (HTLV-I) proviral load and the risk of HTLVI–ass...

Human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) -associated myelopathy/tropic spastic paraparesis is a demyelinating inflammatory neurologic disease associated with HTLV-1 infection. HTLV-1 Tax11-19-specific cytotoxic T cells have been isolated from HLA-A2-positive patients. We have used a peptide-loaded soluble HLA-A2-Ig complex to directly visualize HTLV-1 Tax11-19-specific T cells from peripheral...

introduction genetic background has known to be associated with the outcome of human t cell lymphotropic virus (htlv) type i infection. in the present study we investigate the association between gm-csf gene polymorphisms with the outcome of htlv-i infection. materials and methods we analyzed 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the promter region of granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating fa...