Concomitant infection of HTLV-I and HIV-l: Prevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies in Washington, D.C. area

1573-7284

HTLV-I ; HIV-1 ; IgG ; IgM ; ELISA ; Western blot

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Medicine

Abstract Serum samples collected from four groups of individuals in the Washington, D.C. area were examined for the presence of IgG and IgM classes of antibody reacting against HTLV-1 and HIV-1. These four groups were: (1) healthy adults with negative premarital VDRL test for syphilis (n=113), (2) miscellaneous common disease patients (n=155), (3) drug abusers (n=130), and (4) homosexual men (n=187). The former two groups are considered to be low-risk groups, and the latter two, high-risk groups. The prevalence of IgG antibody on ELISA/Western blot tests for these groups were respectively: (1) 5.3%/1.8%, (2) 5.2%/1.9%, (3) 13.9%/4.6%, and (4) 4.3%/1.6% for HTLV-1, and (1) 2.7%/0.9%, (2) 4.5%/0%, (3) 12.3%/5.4%, and (4) 8.0%/5.9% for HIV-1. Instances of possible concomitant infection as shown by the presence of antibodies against both HTLV-I and HIV-1 were found only in the latter two high-risk groups, i.e. two (1.5%) in group (3), and three (1.6%) in group (4) as confirmed by both Western blot and immunofluorescence tests. Out of 97 sera collected from drug abusers in 1985-86 which had IgG antibody by Western blot test against HIV-1, 23 (23.7%) were HTLV-I antibody positive by ELISA test (Group 5), and 8 of these were confirmed by Western blot test. Among these 8 persons, IgM antibody against HTLV-I was found in 2, while that against HIV-1 was positive in 7 persons. This fact suggests that the exposure to HIV-1 occurred more recently than that with HTLV-I in most of those persons who were dually infected. By cross-absorption studies, it was shown that the dual antibody reactivities were not due to cross-reactivity between HTLV-I and HIV-1.

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