TAX And HBZ Gene Expression In Association Of HTLV-I Proviral Load Compared Among Adult T CellLeukemia/Lymphoma (ATLL) And Healthy Carriers

Mashhad is one of the endemic areas for HTLV-I infection. The small proportion of infected subjectsdeveloped in two progressive diseases: ATL and HAM/TSP. ATLL caused by the aggressive T-cellproliferation and is associated with a very poor prognosis. Two major oncoproteins TAX and HBZ arethe main cause of malignancy which another virological marker such as proviral load could be usedfull for disease monitoring progression, therefore in this study co expression of TAX, HBZ andproviral load were evaluated. 38 HTLV-I infected individuals including 18 asymptomatic and 20 ATLsubjects were investigated. PBMCs mRNA converted to CDNA and extracted DNA used forassessment of TAX and HBZ expression and proviral load then investigated by TaqMan qPCR. Datashowed a significant difference of TAX and HBZ expression among study groups (ATL and carriersP= (0.003 and 0.000) respectively, furthermore significant statically difference of proviral loadobserved entire study population (ATL vs carrier P=0.002). Moreover, the means values in ATLLgroup were 11431.70± 3774.3, 0.199±0.164, 0.101±0.061 and among healthy carrier were513.25±119.23, 0.000074±0.00006, 0.000012±0.000005 for proviral load, TAX/β2 and HBZ/β2respectively. The present study demonstrated that HTLV-I proviral load, TAX, and HBZ were higherin ATL group in comparison with healthy carriers. Therefore, TAX, HBZ and proviral load can beused as prognostic and monitoring marker for the efficiency of therapeutic regime and prognosis ofHTLV-I associated malignancy.