Molecular detection of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 infection among oncology patients in Germany: a retrospective view.

RUGGIERI M; BERINI C; FISCH P; BIGLIONE M

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2019

1932-6203

Public Health authorities of many countries have implemented routine blood donor screening for antibodies to HTLV-1. In countries like the USA or Japan the screening for HTLV-1/2 is mandatory. In the European Union, the European Commission summarize that for example, Portugal and France are legally binding to make screening in blood donors. In Spain, the screening is recommended at a national level, but not mandatory, and in others countries like Italy or Germany, the screening is not even recommended [18]. Besides, there are no routine antenatal screening programs in Europe. Regarding cell and/or tissue donations the European Union establishes that HTLV-1 antibody testing must be performed for donors living in, or originating from high-incidence areas or with sexual partners originating from those areas or where the donor?s parents originate from those areas [19]. Considering that the screening for HTLV-1/2 cannot distinguish between those two viruses, repeatedly reactive samples by screening tests are further tested by Western blot (WB) which may follow the specific criteria for HTLV-1, HTLV-2, or HTLV seropositivity. Nevertheless, a frequent problem in HTLV-1 diagnosis is the high prevalence of indeterminate serological results by WB, leading to difficulties in the interpretation and counseling. These cases have been reported in blood donors worldwide even in non-endemic areas and especially in natives from tropical areas of Africa [20, 21]. One possible solution to that problem is to amplify conserved segments of the provirus performing a nested-PCR (n-PCR). This technique has a sensitivity of 100% and can detect one MT-2 cell (8 proviral copies)/1x106 non-infected cells [22, 23]. The objective of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the presence of HTLV-1 in samples stored at the Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Germany. Two different nested-PCR protocols have been modified and set up for HTLV-1 detection.