Report of one case with Seropositive and PCR negative HTLV-I profile in Cordoba, Argentina.

GASTALDELLO R; OTSUKI K; MATURANO E; PAULO VICENTE A; PEREZ DE ROSAS A; TREVIÑO E; DOMINGUEZ C; BEPRE H; GALLEGO S

Congreso; 10th International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV and Related Viruses..; 2001

Here, we reported one case of a 44 year-old Argentinean woman who was HTLV-I seropositive in all four antibody assays used, but with a PCR negative profile. The specific HTLV-I/II antibodies in the serum sample was determined by EIA (Vironostika HTLV-I/II, Organon Teknika), particle agglutination assay (Serodia, Fujirebio INC), ?in house? indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and western blot (Bioblot HTLV, Biokit). The sample was reactive by the screening tests, and was confirmed seropositive by IFA and WB. We tried to detect, by PCR, the provirus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The target regions were: 128 pb of tax/rex gene; a 657 bp of env gene: and 760 bp of LTR gene. Because of the sample was PCR negative in all three gene tested, we used a sensitive generic PCR to HTLV/STLV types and others divergent HTLV-like viruses. No sequence was amplified by this assay. Despite the PCR negative results, this subject were considered as HTLV-I carrier because she was antibody positive in every serological assay used. This is the first report of a seropositive but PCR negative HTLV-I carrier in Argentina. Follow-up studies of these carriers would be useful to better understand the pathogenesis of HTLV-I infection.