A new HTLV type Ii subtype a isolate in an HIV type 1-infected prostitute from Cameroon, Central Africa
Mauclere, P.; Mahieux, R.; Garcia-Calleja, J.M.; Salla, R.; Tekaïa, F.; Millan, J.; De Thé, G.; Gessain, A.
Aids Research and Human Retroviruses 11(8): 989-993
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0889-2229 PMID: 7492447 DOI: 10.1089/aid.1995.11.989Document Number: 295597
Among 332 female sex workers in Douala, Cameroon, 113 were HIV-1 seropositive, 3 were HTLV-I seropositive, and only 1 had specific anti-HTLV-II antibodies. By cocultivation with BJAB cells, an HTLV-II was isolated from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of this 32-year-old woman coinfected by HIV-1. This new African HTLV-II isolate (PH230PCAM) belongs to the molecular subtype A, exhibiting, however, a nucleotide variability of 2.4% and 0.8%, vis-à-vis the MO prototype, in the LTR and in the gp21 env gene, respectively. These data, as well as the previous findings of another HTLV-II subtype A in a Ghanean prostitute, suggest that this viral subtype had been imported into Africa, while the HTLV-II subtype B, described in remote areas of Zaire, Gabon, and Cameroon, could be a genuine African HTLV-II, present in this continent for a long period of time.