Detection of anti-HTLV-I Tax antibodies in HTLV-I enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-negative individuals.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Detection of anti-HTLV-I Tax antibodies in HTLV-I enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-negative individuals.

Blood. 1989 Aug 15;74(3):1066-72. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/89323460
Ehrlich GD; Glaser JB; Abbott MA; Slamon DJ; Keith D; Sliwkowski M; Brandis J; Keitelman E; Teramoto Y; Papsidero L; et al; Department of Medicine, SUNY HSC Syracuse, 13210.

Abstract: The HTLV-I tax gene protein (Tax) is not packaged within the mature viral particle from which the proteins for the commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are derived. Screening of 162 individuals within a cohort of white intravenous (IV) drug abusers, previously identified as having an increased incidence of HTLV-I infection, demonstrated that seven of them had antibodies to the HTLV-I Tax protein but tested negative in HTLV-I ELISAs and Western blots prepared from purified virion proteins. Three out of 35 individuals in other behaviorally defined high-risk groups also displayed this limited pattern of reactivity to HTLV-I proteins. The presence of the anti-HTLV-I p40/Tax antibodies was determined by radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA), which also revealed low levels of anti-env reactivity. The specificity of the anti-p40 reactivity was confirmed on specific Tax ELISAs and Western blots prepared from recombinantly produced Tax. In vitro gene amplification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to establish the presence of sequences homologous to HTLV-I proviral DNA in four/four of these HTLV-I ELISA negative, Tax ELISA/Tax western blot/RIPA positive individuals. These data suggest that the true incidence of HTLV-I infection within high-risk cohorts is greater than previously reported.

Keywords: Animal Blotting, Western *Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Gene Amplification Human HTLV-I Antibodies/*ANALYSIS HTLV-I Antigens/GENETICS/IMMUNOLOGY HTLV-I Infections/*DIAGNOSIS Male Precipitin Tests Rabbits Recombinant Proteins Retroviridae Proteins/ANALYSIS/GENETICS Risk Factors Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. Virion/ANALYSIS/GENETICS JOURNAL ARTICLE

891130
M89B0535

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