Molecular characterization of HTLV-1 genomic region hbz from patients with different clinical conditions.

The Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type-1 (HTLV-1) is associated with severe pathologies as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATLL) and infective dermatitis associated with the HTLV-1 (IDH). Interestingly, HTLV-1 infection does not necessarily imply in the development of pathological processes and it is unknown why some patients remains as asymptomatic carriers (AC). Despite some mutations in HTLV-1 genome appear to influence the outcome of HTLV-1, there are few studies that characterizes molecularly the hbz region. This study aimed to perform the molecular characterization of hbz gene isolated from patients with different clinical outcomes. A total of 15 sequences were generated and analyzed with 571 sequences previously published. The characterization showed that the R119Q mutation seems to be related to HTLV-1 clinical conditions, since the frequency of this HBZ mutation is significantly different in the comparison between AC with HAM/TSP and ATLL. The R119Q mutation is possibly a protective factor as the frequency is higher in AC sequences. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.