Cervicovaginal synthesis of IgG antibodies to the immunodominant 175–199 domain of the surface glycoprotein gp46 of human T-cell leukemia virus type I

✍ Scribed by Bélec, Laurent; Georges-Courbot, Marie-Claude; Georges, Alain; Mohamed, Ali Si; Londos-Gagliardi, Danielle; Hallouin, Marie-Charlotte; Hocini, Hakim; Guillemain, Bernard

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 898 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199609)50:1<42::aid-jmv9>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Paired sera, saliva and cervicovaginal secretions from 17 HTLV-I-infected women (19-75 yr) were tested for total IgA and IgG, for IgA and IgG to the immunodominant region gp46/175-Pro-199, for serum IgG to the neutralizing domains gp46/ 190-Pro-I99 and gp46/190-Ser-199, or for tax-rex proviral HTLV-DNA. Serum antibodies to gp46/ 175-Pro-I99 were detected more frequently in the IgG (13/17) than in the IgA (5/17) isotypes. The majority (8/12) of anti-gp46/175-Pro-199-positive sera reacted also to gp46/190-Pro-199 or to gp46/ 190-Ser-199, demonstrating their neutralizing properties. In saliva, antibodies to gp46/175-Pro-199were notgenerallydetected. In cervicovaginal secretions, IgG to gp46/175-Pro-199, but not IgA, were detected in 6/15 (40%) patients. The mean specific activity of IgG to gp46/175-Pro-199 showed a trend to be higher in cervicovaginal secretions (218 c 109) than in sera (14 + 4). Furthermore, in all patients with cervicovaginal IgG to g p46/175-Pro-199, the cervicovaginal/seru m ratio (19 2 6) of anti-gp46 IgG specific activities were markedly above 1. HTLV-DNA was detected in 4/17 salivas, and in 3/15 cervicovaginal secretions, all from patients demonstrating cervicovaginal synthesis of IgG to gp46/175-Pro-199. In conclusion, IgG to gp46/175-Pro-199 in cervicovaginal secretions, when present, appear to be produced primarily locally because of local HTLV-I excretion. Since anti-gp46/175-Pro-199 antibodies usually support reactivities to neutralizing domains, their presence could be relevant for limiting HTLV-I transmission via cervicovaginal secretions.