Molecular subtyping of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2 by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study Group.

Pubmed ID: 8586713

Pubmed Central ID: PMC228684

Journal: Journal of clinical microbiology

Publication Date: Dec. 1, 1995

Affiliation: Retrovirus Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA.

MeSH Terms: Humans, Male, Female, Base Sequence, DNA, Viral, Polymerase Chain Reaction, HTLV-II Infections, Human T-lymphotropic virus 2, Sensitivity and Specificity, Reproducibility of Results, Molecular Sequence Data, Sexual Partners, Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational, Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length, DNA Primers, Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid, Virology

Authors: Switzer WM, Heneine W, Kaplan JE, Khabbaz RF, Busch M

Cite As: Heneine W, Switzer WM, Busch M, Khabbaz RF, Kaplan JE. Molecular subtyping of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2 by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study Group. J Clin Microbiol 1995 Dec;33(12):3260-3.

Studies:

Abstract

Molecular subtyping of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) by the currently used method of restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis may not be sufficiently discriminatory for transmission studies because of the predominance of single restriction types in various HTLV-2-infected populations. The utility of single-strand conformations polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was evaluated as a tool to improve the sensitivity of the subtyping of HTLV-2. The assay was designed to target a highly variable region in the long terminal repeat and was shown to be able to detect single nucleotide changes in cloned HTLV-2 sequences. Analysis of 52 HTLV-2 samples, of which 32 were from 16 sex partner pairs (16 males, 16 females), showed nine different SSCP patterns. Identical SSCP results were obtained for each of the 16 couples, suggesting the presence of similar viral genotypes and, therefore, supporting the likelihood of sexual transmission of HTLV-2 in each of these couples. Furthermore, SSCP analysis of seven HTLV-2 samples of the same restriction type (b5) showed five different SSCP patterns. Nucleotide sequencing of two samples with distinct SSCP patterns confirmed the sequence differences. SSCP provides a facile and discriminatory tool for the differentiation of HTLV-2 strains, including those previously indistinguishable by restriction fragment length polymorphism.