Natural antibodies to the structural core protein (p24) of the human T-cell leukemia (lymphoma) retrovirus found in sera of leukemia patients in Japan

作者：V. S. Kalyanaraman, M. G. Sarngadharan, Y Nakao, Yôhei Itô, Tadao Aoki, Robert C. Gallo · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：1982 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.79.5.1653 · 被引用次数：302 · 研究领域：T-cell and Retrovirus Studies、Vector-Borne Animal Diseases、Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology

In Japan, adult T-cell leukemias and lymphomas are more common than in the United States and Europe, and in the southwest part of Japan these T-cell malignancy cases appear in clusters. Therefore, we investigated the involvement in these leukemias and lymphomas of the human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) that was previously isolated in one of our laboratories from cultured T cells of some patients in the United States with leukemias and lymphomas involving relatively mature T cells. High titers of antibodies capable of quantitative precipitation of (125)I-labeled p24, a well characterized core protein of HTLV, were detected in 12 of 12 patients with untreated adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). (One negative was a patient on chemotherapy.) Ten of the 12 positive samples were from an area where the disease is endemic. Strong precipitating antibodies were also detected in five of seven cases of T-cell malignant lymphoma (TML) which differs from ATL by having fewer leukemic cells in the peripheral blood. High antibody titers were also observed in one of five cases of acute monoblastic leukemia and one of eight cases of chronic myelogenous leukemia in the blast phase of the disease. Low to moderate titers of antibodies were detected in several categories of leukemia (two cases of blast-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia, two cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia of the null-cell type, and one case of acute myelogenous leukemia). Among all categories of leukemias, except ATL and TML, more ...