Antibodies Reactive with Human T-Lymphotropic Retroviruses (HTLV-III) in the Serum of Patients with AIDS

TLDR

T‑lymphotropic retroviruses in cats and humans can cause T‑cell proliferation, leukemia, or immunosuppression, with HTLV‑I linked to leukemia and HTLV‑II inducing proliferation in vitro but disease role unclear. HTLV‑III was isolated from cultured cells of 48 AIDS patients. HTLV‑III is a member of the HTLV family, more closely related to HTLV‑II, and antibodies against its envelope antigen p41 were found in 88 % of AIDS patients and 79 % of symptomatic homosexual men, but in less than 1 % of heterosexual subjects.

Abstract

In cats, infection with T-lymphotropic retroviruses can cause T-cell proliferation and leukemia or T-cell depletion and immunosuppression. In humans, some highly T4 tropic retroviruses called HTLV-I can cause T-cell proliferation and leukemia. The subgroup HTLV-II also induces T-cell proliferation in vitro, but its role in disease is unclear. Viruses of a third subgroup of human T-lymphotropic retroviruses, collectively designated HTLV-III, have been isolated from cultured cells of 48 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The biological properties of HTLV-III and immunological analyses of its proteins show that this virus is a member of the HTLV family, and that it is more closely related to HTLV-II than to HTLV-I. Serum samples from 88 percent of patients with AIDS and from 79 percent of homosexual men with signs and symptoms that frequently precede AIDS, but from less than 1 percent of heterosexual subjects, have antibodies reactive against antigens of HTLV-III. The major immune reactivity appears to be directed against p41, the presumed envelope antigen of the virus.