STUDIES OF AN AFRICAN POPULATION ENDEMIC FOR HTLV

我们对以色列少数民族的初步血清流行病学调查， 37%的健康法拉沙人（埃塞俄比亚的“黑人犹太人”） 有HTLV-I和HTLV-II的抗体。* 这是已知的 HTLV抗体在任何人群中的流行率，并表明广泛存在 HTLV感染。 HTLV是一种外源性病毒， 几种人类恶性肿瘤的发展。 将进行血清流行病学研究，以（i）表征 临床相关的生物活性;（ii）检测 病毒的水平传播;（iii）研究病毒与宿主的相互作用 包括确定宿主范围和定位以及 不同类型的HTLV。 假设将被检验， HTLV抗体与涉及的其他病毒的抗体相关 在人类恶性肿瘤中，特别是CMV、EBV和HBV。 的截面 将进行研究以证实HTLV抗体是 与特定的T细胞恶性肿瘤相关，并探测新的， 未被发现的疾病。 前瞻性研究将测试该模式 HTLV母婴传播，并将表征免疫 新生儿HTLV感染的反应。 吸收酶免疫测定研究表明，血清阳性法拉沙 携带与HTLV I型和II型交叉反应的HTLV新亚型， 与他们不同。 HTLV将从以下淋巴细胞中分离： 血清阳性的法拉沙个体，在培养物中生长，并在 数量。 将建立ELISA试验，并进行竞争性免疫测定 在HTLV类型-I、-II和-Falasha中进行。 分离的HTLV 从Falasha个体将被分子克隆，限制性图谱将 病毒基因组的选定区域将被测序， 与该组的其他亚型相比。 * 此外，其中10%的人也有HTLV-III抗体。

Our preliminary sero-epidemiologic survey of ethnic groups in Israel has shown that 37% of healthy Falasha individuals ("Black Jews" of Ethopian decent) have antibodies for HTLV-I and -II.* This is the highest known prevalence of antibody to HTLV in any population and indicates widespread infection with HTLV. HTLV is an exogenous virus and is associated with the development of several human malignancies. Sero-epidemiologic studies will be performed to (i) characterize the clinically relevant biologic activities; (ii) detect the exact mode of horizontal transmission of the virus; (iii) study virus-host interactions including determinations of host-range and localization and overlap of different types of HTLV. The hypothesis will be tested that prevalence of HTLV antibodies is correlated with antibodies to other viruses implicated in human malignancy, specifically CMV, EBV, and HBV. A cross-sectional study will be done to confirm the hypothesis that HTLV antibodies are associated with specific T-cell malignancy, and to probe for new and unrecognized disease associations. Prospective studies will test the mode of HTLV transmission of mother to child and will characterize the immune response of neonatal HTLV infection. Absorption enzyme immunoassay studies suggest that sero-positive Falashas carry a new subtype of HTLV that crossreacts with HTLV types I and II but differs from them. HTLV will be isolated from the lymphocytes of seropositive Falasha individuals, grown in culture, and purified in quantity. An ELISA test will be established and competition immunoassays among HTLV types -I, -II, and -Falasha will be performed. HTLV isolated from Falasha individuals will be molelcularly cloned, restriction maps will be derived, and selected regions of the viral genome will be sequenced and compared with other subtypes of the group. * In addition, 10% of these have antibodies to HTLV-III as well.