Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 339, Issue 8794, 14 March 1992, Pages 645-646
The Lancet

SHORT REPORTS
Chronic neurodegenerative disease associated with HTLV-II infection

https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(92)90797-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Although human T-cell leukaemia virus (HTLV) type I is known to cause a number of diseases, there has been no convincing evidence of pathological changes after infection with the related virus, HTLV-II. We have found an endemic focus of HTLV-II infection among members of an American Indian population in New Mexico, USA. We set out to determine the pathological consequences of HTLV-II infection in this population and identified two sisters (aged 59 and 46 years) with a disease superficially resembling the myeloneuropathy induced by HTLV-I. These women had a syndrome similar to the olivopontocerebellar atrophy variant of multiple system atrophy, and HTLV-II infection was confirmed by western blot and the polymerase chain reaction. Thus, HTLV-II may, like HTLV-I, cause a progressive neurodegenerative disease.

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