Predominance of Human Lymphotropic T-cell Virus type 2 (HTLV-2) subtype b in urban populations of Argentina.

BERINI, CAROLINA; EIRIN, MARÍA EMILIA; DELFINO, MARÍA CECILIA; WEISSENBACHER, MERCEDES; BIGLIONE, MIRNA

AIDS RESEARCH AND HUMAN RETROVIRUSES

MARY ANN LIEBERT INC

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2012

0889-2229

HTLV-2b infection has been described among aborigines from Northern Argentina, while HTLV-2a has been described in an injecting drug user (IDU) from a Central region,similar to the situation in Spain, USA and Brazil. In this study, 22 of the 26 strains analyzed from blood donors and HIV-1+ individuals were HTLV-2b (84.6%) clustering with Amerindian references, while 4 HIV-1+ (15.4%) were HTLV-2a. HTLV-2a sequences were closely related to Brazilian references in contrast to the previous Argentinean IDU strain which clustered with Africans and Amerindians from North America. In summary, these findings show that HTLV-2b is the major strain circulating in an urban population of Argentina. HTLV-2a/b could have been introduced from endemic South American countries such as Brazil and due to the contact with other populations such as IDUs from Europe despite its introduction due to the increasing internal migration of aborigines to big urban centers. Considering this results and recent data about the dissemination of HTLV-1 in residents of Buenos Aires city, new studies among non-at-risk groups for HTLV-1/2 30 infection should be performed.