HTLV Type I/II in British Columbia Amerindians: A Seroprevalence Study and Sequence Characterization of an HTLV Type IIa Isolate

Abstract

It has been established that the human T cell lymphotropic viruses type I and II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II) are both present in some indigenous peoples of the Americas. While HTLV-I has been identified in coastal British Columbia Indians (BCIs), HTLV-II has not been previously reported in the BCIs or other Canadian Amerindians. The prevalence of HTLV-I and HTLV-II in these populations has not been extensively studied. In this article, we examine a group of BCIs from Vancouver Island who belong to the Nuu-Chah-Nulth and are known to have an increased incidence of rheumatic disease. In 494 serum samples from this tribe, the levels of prevalence of HTLV-I and HTLV-II were 2.8 and 1.6%, respectively. No association could be made between arthropathy and HTLV-I infection. In addition, we characterized an HTLV-II isolate of a BCI from the coastal mainland of British Columbia and with a history of intravenous drug abuse. This case represents the first molecular characterization of a Canadian Amerindian HTLV-II isolate: a subtype IIa virus with phylogenetic affinity for intravenous drug user isolates and containing an extended form of the Tax protein. These results are consistent either with this strain having been sampled from a polymorphic ancestral pool of HTLV-II that gave rise to the current epidemic spread of this virus by intravenous drug use and sexual transmission, or with its being “back-transmitted” into the BC Amerindian population in association with intravenous drug use.