Evaluation of the role of TAX, HBZ, and HTLV-1 proviral load on the survival of ATLL patients.
BACKGROUND
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is an aggressive malignancy with very poor prognosis and short survival, caused by the human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1). The HTLV-1 biomarkers trans-activator x (TAX) and HTLV-1 basic leucine zipper factor (HBZ) are main oncogenes and life-threatening elements. This study aimed to assess the role of the TAX and HBZ genes and HTLV-1 proviral load (PVL) in the survival of patients with ATLL.


METHODS
Forty-three HTLV-1-infected individuals, including 18 asymptomatic carriers (AC) and 25 ATLL patients (ATLL), were evaluated between 2011 and 2015. The mRNA expression of TAX and HBZ and the HTLV-1 PVL were measured by quantitative PCR.


RESULTS
Significant differences in the mean expression levels of TAX and HBZ were observed between the two study groups (ATLL and AC, P=0.014 and P=0.000, respectively). In addition, the ATLL group showed a significantly higher PVL than AC (P=0.000). There was a significant negative relationship between PVL and survival among all study groups (P=0.047).


CONCLUSION
The HTLV-1 PVL and expression of TAX and HBZ were higher in the ATLL group than in the AC group. Moreover, a higher PVL was associated with shorter survival time among all ATLL subjects. Therefore, measurement of PVL, TAX, and HBZ may be beneficial for monitoring and predicting HTLV-1-infection outcomes, and PVL may be useful for prognosis assessment of ATLL patients. This research demonstrates the possible correlation between these virological markers and survival in ATLL patients.
['Akbarin|Mohammad Mehdi|MM|', 'Shirdel|Abbas|A|', 'Bari|Alireza|A|', 'Mohaddes|Seyedeh Tahereh|ST|', 'Rafatpanah|Houshang|H|', 'Karimani|Ehsan Ghayour|EG|', 'Etminani|Kobra|K|', 'Golabpour|Amin|A|', 'Torshizi|Reza|R|']
TAX HBZ HTLV-1 Proviral load ATLL