There is now strong evidence that endemic HTLV-II infection is present in American Indians of New Mexico. Data from blood donors would suggest that 1-2% of indians with no previously-known risk factors for HTLV infection has been exposed to HTLV-II; firthermore, distant indian ancestry or indian sexual partners are now emerging as independent risk factors for HTLV-II infection in non-indians in our region. Despite this HTLA-II endemia, no evidence for increased rates of hairy cell leukemia, mycosis fungoides or chronic lymphocytic leukemia have emerged by study of patients from the New Mexico Tumor Registry. Limited and directed probing of the NMTR for indian patients with common lymphoid neoplasms has revealed preliminary evidence that HTLV-II provirus is present in the lymphoma cells of a patient with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. This patient has two HTLV-seropositive children. A study is proposed to answer the following questions. (1) What is the actual prevalence of HTLV-II infection in indians in our region? (2) Are indian patients with lymphoid leukemia or non-Hodginkins lymphoma at increased risk for HTLV-II infection? (3) How many HTLV-II-infected indian leukemia and lymphoma patients have HTLV-II provirus in """"""""single- copy"""""""" abundance in their tumors? We propose the following methods to address these questions. (1) Perform blinded seroprevalence studies on (A) 200-300 unselected outpatients and (B) 200-300 obstetric patients presenting to the Albuquerque IHS hospital, using reagents capable of distinguishing the two viruses. (2) Trace all (A) living indians with leukemia and lymphoma in New Mexico through the NMTR and offer them serologic testing for HTLV-I and II, and (B) trace all available pathologic specimens on all deceased indians with leukemia or lymphoma and perform PCR on the archived tumors. The goal of this study is to define any potential of HTLV-II to induce lymphoid neoplasms in the HTLV-II-endemic populations.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA055480-02
Application #
3199962
Study Section
AIDS and Related Research Study Section 2 (ARRB)
Project Start
1991-07-01
Project End
1993-06-30
Budget Start
1992-07-01
Budget End
1993-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1992
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of New Mexico
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
829868723
City
Albuquerque
State
NM
Country
United States
Zip Code
87131
Harrington Jr, W J; Ucar, A; Gill, P et al. (1995) Clinical spectrum of HTLV-I in south Florida. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Hum Retrovirol 8:466-73
Hjelle, B; Khabbaz, R F; Conway, G A et al. (1994) Prevalence of human T cell lymphotropic virus type II in American Indian populations of the southwestern United States. Am J Trop Med Hyg 51:11-5
Hjelle, B; Wilson, C; Cyrus, S et al. (1993) Human T-cell leukemia virus type II infection frequently goes undetected in contemporary US blood donors. Blood 81:1641-4
Hjelle, B; Zhu, S W; Takahashi, H et al. (1993) Endemic human T cell leukemia virus type II infection in southwestern US Indians involves two prototype variants of virus. J Infect Dis 168:737-40
Harrington Jr, W J; Sheremata, W; Hjelle, B et al. (1993) Spastic ataxia associated with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II infection. Ann Neurol 33:411-4
Buckner, C; Roberts, C R; Foung, S K et al. (1992) Immune responsiveness to the immunodominant recombinant envelope epitopes of human T lymphotropic virus types I and II in diverse geographic populations. J Infect Dis 166:1160-3
Hjelle, B; Chaney, R (1992) Sequence variation of functional HTLV-II tax alleles among isolates from an endemic population: lack of evidence for oncogenic determinant in tax. J Med Virol 36:136-41
Davis, L E; Hjelle, B L; Miller, V E et al. (1992) Early viral brain invasion in iatrogenic human immunodeficiency virus infection. Neurology 42:1736-9
Hjelle, B; Appenzeller, O; Mills, R et al. (1992) Chronic neurodegenerative disease associated with HTLV-II infection. Lancet 339:645-6