Epidemiology Of HTLV-1 And -2 Infection
 

Major contributions to HTLV research have included findings of increased mortality and neurological outcomes attributable to HTLV-1 and -2 (see previous Figure) HTLV proviral load as a potential marker of pathogenesis and prognosis; clonality of HTLV integration in peripheral blood lymphocytes (see Figure 187). Melamed A et al. PLOS Path 2014 Mar 13 [Epub ahead of print]. PMCID: PMC3953477); discovery of a novel anti-sense HTLV-2 gene transcript APH-2 which may influence lymphocyte proliferation; viral load measurement contributed to a simian model of HIV and HTLV-2 co-infection; lymphocyte proliferation, tax mRNA and tax protein expression and NKT cell frequency in collaborations with immunology colleagues Norris and Nixon; and telomere length as a possible marker of HTLV lymphocytic proliferation.

Selected Publications:

Biswas HH, Engstrom JW, Kaidarova Z, Garratty G, Gibble JW, Newman BH, Smith JW, Ziman A, Fridey JL, Sacher RA, Murphy EL. Neurological abnormalities in HTLV-I and –II infected individuals without overt myelopathy. Neurology 2009;73:781-9. PMCID: PMC2739606

Biswas HH, Kaidarova Z, Garratty G, Gibble JW, Newman BH, Smith JW, Ziman A, Fridey JL, Sacher RA, Murphy EL. Increased All-Cause and Cancer Mortality in HTLV-II Infection. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2010;54(3):290-6. PMCID: PMC2891114

Murphy EL, Lee TH, Chafets D, Nass CC, Wang B, Loughlin K, Smith D. Higher HTLV proviral is associated with HTLV-I vs. HTLV-II, HTLV-II subtype A versus B, and with male sex and a history of blood transfusion. J Infect Dis 2004;190:504-10. Epub 2004 Jul 6.

Lee TH, Chafets DM, Busch MP, Murphy EL. Quantitation of HTLV-I and II proviral load using real-time quantitative PCR with SYBR Green chemistry. J Clin Virol 2004;31:275-82.

Kwaan N, Lee TH, Chafets DM, Nass C, Newman B, Smith J, Garratty G, Murphy EL. Long-term variation in HTLV-I and HTLV-II proviral load and association with clinical data. J Infect Dis 2006;194:1557-64. Epub 2006 Oct 27.

Gabet AS, Moules V, Sibon D, Nass CC, Mortreux F, Mauclere P, Gessain A, Murphy EL, Wattel E. Endemic versus epidemic viral spreads display distinct patterns of HTLV-2b replication. Virology 2006;345:13-21. Epub 2005 Oct 26.

Melamed A, Witkover AD, Laydon DJ, Brown R, Ladell K, Rowan AG, Gormley N, Murphy EL, Price DA, Taylor GP, Bangham CRM. HTLV-2 infection is highly oligoclonal and its clonality is distinct from HTLV-1 infection. PLOS Path 2014; 10(3):e10040066. Epub 2014 Mar 13.

Halin M, Douceron E, Clerc I, Journo C, Ko NL, Landry S, Murphy EL, Gessain A, Lemasson I, Mesnard JM, Barbeau B, Mahieux R. Human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 produces a spliced antisense transcript encoding a protein that lacks a classical bZIP domain but still inhibits Tax2-mediated transcription. Blood 2009;114:2427-38. Epub 2009 Jul 14. PMCID: PMC2746472

Douceron E, Kaidarova Z, Miyazato P, Matsuoka M, Murphy EL, Mahieux R. HTLV-2 APH-2 expression is correlated with proviral load but APH-2 does not promote lymphocytosis. J Infect Dis 2012;205:82-6. Epub 2011 Nov 7. PMCID: PMC3242747

Gordon SN, Weissman AR, Cecchinato V, Fenizia C, Ma ZM, Lee TH, Zaffiri L, Andresen V, Parks RW, Jones KS, Heraud JM, Ferrarri MG, Chung HK, Verizon D, Mahieux R, Murphy EL, Jacobson S, Miller CJ, Ruscetti FW, Franchini G. Pre-existing infection with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2 neither exacerbate nor attenuate SIVmac251 infection in macaques. J Virol 2010;84(6):3043-58. Epub 2010 Jan 13. PMCID: PMC2826058

Norris PJ, Hirschkorn DF, DeVita DD, Lee TH, Murphy EL. Human T cell leukemia virus type I infection drives spontaneous proliferation of natural killer cells. Virulence 2010;1(1):19-28. PMCID: PMC2903746

Ndhlovu LC, Snyder-Cappione JE, Carvalho KI, Leal FE, Loo CP, Bruno FR, Jha AR, Devita D, Hasenkrug AM, Barbosa HM, Segurado AC, Nixon DF, Murphy EL, Kallas EG. Lower numbers of circulating Natural Killer T (NK T) cells in individuals with human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) associated neurological disease. Clin Exp Immunol 2009;158(3):294-9. PMCID: PMC2792825

Usadi B, Bruhn R, Lin J, Lee TH, Blackburn E, Murphy EL. Telomere Length, Proviral Load and Neurologic Impairment in HTLV-1 and HTLV-2-Infected Subjects. Viruses. 2016 Aug 11;8(8). pii: E221.