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Altered host immunity, human T lymphotropic virus type I replication, and risk of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: a prospective analysis from the ATL Cohort Consortium
Retrovirology volume 8, Article number: A81 (2011)
Background
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a rare and often fatal outcome of infection with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I). Altered host immunity in HTLV-I carriers has been postulated as a risk factor for ATL, but is not well understood.
Methods
We prospectively examined well-validated serologic markers of HTLV-I pathogenesis and host immunity in 53 incident ATL cases and 150 carefully matched asymptomatic HTLV-I carriers from eight population-based studies in Japan, Jamaica, the United States and Brazil. We used multivariable conditional logistic regression, conditioned on the matching factors (cohort/race, age, sex, and sample collection year), to evaluate the biomarkers’ associations with ATL in all subjects and by years (≤5, >5) from blood draw to ATL diagnosis.
Results
In the pooled population, above-median soluble interleukin-2-receptor-alpha levels (sIL2R, v. ≤ median; odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI)=4.08, 1.47-11.29) and anti-Tax seropositivity (anti-Tax; OR, 95% CI=2.97, 1.15-7.67), which indicate T cell activation and HTLV-I replication, respectively, were independently associated with an increased ATL risk. Above-median total immunoglobulin E levels (v. ≤ median; OR, 95% CI=0.45, 0.19-1.06), which indicate type 2 (B cell) activation, predicted a lower ATL risk. The sIL2R and anti-Tax associations with ATL were stronger in samples collected ≤5 years pre-diagnosis.
Conclusions
The biomarker profile predictive of ATL risk suggests a role for heightened T cell activation and HTLV-I replication and diminished type 2 immunity in the etiology of ATL in HTLV-I carriers. Translation of these findings to clinical risk prediction or early ATL detection requires further investigation.
Acknowledgements
This abstract is presented on behalf of the ATL Cohort Consortium.
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Birmann, B.M., Okayama, A., Kim, N. et al. Altered host immunity, human T lymphotropic virus type I replication, and risk of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: a prospective analysis from the ATL Cohort Consortium. Retrovirology 8 (Suppl 1), A81 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-8-S1-A81
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-8-S1-A81
Keywords
- Virus Type
- Blood Draw
- Serologic Marker
- Conditional Logistic Regression
- Host Immunity