Quantitation of HTLV-i proviral load using real-time quantitative PCR with Taqman MGB probe
Xie, J.-Z.; Chen, C.-R.; Zhang, J.; Ni, H.-Y.; Ge, S.-X.; Zhou, J.-J.; Ou, S.-H.; Zheng, X.-J.; Ran, P.; Pei, B.
Bing du Xue Bao 25(5): 339-343
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 1000-8721 PMID: 19954109 Document Number: 632889
A quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed to measure the proviral load of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) in peripheral blood. The technology utilizes special primers and Taqman MGB fluorescence probe to measure amplification products from the gag-pro-pol polyprotein gene of HTLV-I. HTLV-I copy number was normalized to the amount of cellular DNA by quantitation of the beta-actin gene, The amplification system was sensitive to detect 5 copy/microL. The standard curve had a good linearity when the quantity for the gene was between 10(3) and 10(7) copy/microL (R2 = 0.999). Good reproducibility was observed in each intra- and inter-assay. We also measured proviral load in peripheral blood in 12 HTLV-I seropositive former blood donors. Proviral load for HTLV-I infected donors ranged from 0.015 to 12.819 copy/cell in WBC with the mean of 3.116 copy/cell.