Modified western blot assay for confirmation and differentiation of human T cell lymphotropic virus types I and II

Disease association studies of human T cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) types I and II are hindered by the need for multiple assays to confirm and differentiate between the viruses. A modified Western blot assay has been developed using HTLV-I viral lysate and unique (MTA-4) and shared (p21E) HTLV recombinant proteins. By defining confirmation of infection as the presence of antibodies to p24 gag protein and to p21E, all 56 HTLV-I and 49 HTLV-II antisera were confirmed by this modified Western blot alone. Differentiation was determined by reactivity to MTA-4. All HTLV-I antisera reacted with MTA-4 and all HTLV-II antisera did not react with MTA-4. These findings indicate the utility of selected HTLV-I recombinant proteins in a single assay format to confirm and differentiate infections with HTLV-I and HTLV-II.