Peter K C Goon,
Alix Biancardi,
Noam Fast,
Tadahiko Igakura,
Emmanuel Hanon,
Angelina J Mosley,
Becca Asquith,
Keith G Gould, Sara Marshall,
Graham P Taylor,
Charles R M Bangham
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ABSTRACT: Human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) causes HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). We used interferon- gamma enzyme-linked immunospot assays with overlapping peptides spanning the entire HTLV-1 proteome to test whether the HTLV-1-specific CD8(+) T cells differed significantly in frequency or immunodominance hierarchy between patients with HAM/TSP and asymptomatic carriers and whether the frequency correlated with provirus load. Tax was the immunodominant target antigen. There was no significant qualitative or quantitative difference in the HTLV-1-specific CD8(+) T cell response between the 2 groups. Virus-specific CD8(+) T cell frequency alone does not indicate the effectiveness of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte response in controlling provirus load at equilibrium.
The Journal of Infectious Diseases 07/2004; 189(12):2294-8. · 6.41 Impact Factor
