Elevated HIV-1 viral load (VL) observed in specimens frozen in situ in plasma preparation tubes (PPTs) compared to EDTA plasma specimens may affect therapeutic monitoring of HIV-infected patients. The increase in viral load is cell associated and minimized when plasma from the PPT is aspirated or recentrifuged prior to freezing. This study investigates the contribution of integrated HIV-1 provi...

BACKGROUND Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is associated with enzootic bovine leukosis, which is the most common neoplastic disease of cattle. BLV infects cattle worldwide, imposing a severe economic impact on the dairy cattle industry. Recently, we developed a new quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method using Coordination of Common Motifs (CoCoMo) primers to measure the provi...

OBJECTIVE Th1 activation based on a high HTLV-I proviral load is one of the characteristic immunological abnormalities in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). To clarify the cause of this abnormality with the potential to be one of the therapeutic targets, we analyzed the involvement of interleukin-2 (IL-2)/IL-2 r...

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) persistently infects humans, and the proviral loads that persist in vivo vary widely among individuals. Elevation in the proviral load is associated with serious HTLV-1-mediated diseases, such as adult T-cell leukemia and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. However, it remains controversial whether HTLV-1-specific T-cell immunit...

BACKGROUND Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is associated with enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), which is the most common neoplastic disease of cattle. BLV infection may remain clinically silent at the aleukemic (AL) stage, cause persistent lymphocytosis (PL), or, more rarely, B cell lymphoma. BLV has been identified in B cells, CD2+ T cells, CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, γ/δ T cells, mono...

Human T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma virus type I (HTLV-I) is a retrovirus that has been identified as the causative agent of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and other illnesses. HTLV-I infects primarily CD4(+) T cells and the transmission occurs through direct cell-to-cell contact. HAM/TSP patients harbor higher proviral loads in peripheral blood lymphocytes than...

BACKGROUND Infective dermatitis associated with HTLV-1 (IDH) is a severe childhood form of eczema that may progress to adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). OBJECTIVE In this study, the presence of clinical and laboratory parameters suggestive of ATL was evaluated in a cohort of 30 patients with IDH. STUDY DESIGN Over a period of 33 months, the patients were submitted to three-monthly clini...