Sequence analysis of human T cell lymphotropic virus type I strains from southern India: gene amplification and direct sequencing from whole blood blotted onto filter paper

Human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infection in India has been found to be associated with adult T cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATLL) and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) among life-long residents of southern India. To examine the heterogeneity of HTLV-I strains from southern India and to determine their relationship with the sequence variants of HTLV-I from Melanesia, 1149 nucleotides spanning selected regions of the HTLV-I gag, pol, env and pX genes were amplified and directly sequenced from DNA extracted from whole blood blotted onto filter paper and from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, obtained from one patient with HAM/TSP, two with ATLL and eight asymptomatic carriers from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Sequence alignments and comparisons indicated that the 11 HTLV-I strains from southern India were 99.2% to 100% identical among themselves and 98.7% to 100% identical to the Japanese prototype HTLV-I ATK. The majority of base substitutions were transitions and silent. No frameshifts, insertions, deletions or possibly disease-specific base changes were found in the regions sequenced. The observed clustering of the Indian HTLV-I strains with those from Japan, as determined by the maximum parsimony method, suggested a common source of HTLV-I infection with subsequent parallel evolution. Amplification of DNA from blood specimens collected on filter paper may be useful for the study of other blood-borne pathogens

Recurrent cerebral venous and peripheral arterial thrombosis

Non

Human cerebrospinal fluid acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase. Evidence for identity between the serum and cerebrospinal fluid butyrylcholinesterase

Human cerebrospinal fluid contained both acetylcholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.7) and butyrylcholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.8) and they were estimated in the presence of selective inhibitors. Butyrylcholinesterase of human cerebrospinal fluid was similar to human serum butyrylcholinesterase in its electrophoretic mobility, glycoprotein nature and tyramine activation of the aryl acylamidase (EC 3.5.1.13) activity exhibited by butyrylcholinesterase. Moreover antibody raised against human serum purified butyrylcholinesterase could completely immunoprecipitate butyrylcholinesterase from human cerebrospinal fluid without affecting acetylcholinesterase. It is suggested that a useful method for the precise determination of acetylcholinesterase in human cerebrospinal fluid would be removal of butyrylcholinesterase by immunoprecipitation using antibody raised against human serum butyrylcholinesterase

Comparison of Molecular and Conventional Methods for Typing of Enteroviral Isolates

Twenty-eight enteroviral isolates obtained from various clinical specimens were typed by Lim-Benyesh-Melnick (LBM) pool-based neutralization, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and partial sequencing of the VP1 region of the enteroviral genome. Sequencing was found to be a good alternative to LBM typing, while PCR-RFLP was inadequate for identification of enteroviral isolates