Prevalence of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) Infection among Patients with Hematologic Disorders – Serology and Molecular Based Cross- Sectional Study in Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus types-1 (HTLV -1) is well-established risk for the developing Hematological malignancies including adult T cell leukemia lymphoma (ATLL). The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of HTLV-1 infection in patients with hematologic malignancies in Khartoum state by using serological and molecular approaches. During the period from April to September 2019 a total of 106 blood samples were obtained from Hematological Malignancy patients including AML, CML, CLL, ALL, MDS and ATLL. The presence of malignancy was confirmed by using IHC, Molecular and cytogenetic studies. Both males and females were included. A volume of 6 ml blood sample was collected from each patient and tested for the presence of anti-HTLV-1 antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Those with positive serology test were confirmed by detection of Proviral gene by using PCR. Data were analyzed by using spss version 19. The study participants were including 72 (67.9%) males and 34 (32.9%) females. The average age of the study population was 41± 12.4. The result of serology test reveals that out of 106 serum samples examined 7 (6.6%) were positive for HTLV-1 antibody test including 5 males and 2 females. All positive cases were confirmed by PCR and identified with the proviral pX-S gene. Of the HTLV-1 positive cases, three were diagnosed with CML, two were diagnosed with AML in addition to one male patient was diagnosed with ATLL as well as another one male patient diagnosed with CLL. In conclusion, our results show a similar prevalence of HTLV-1 infection in patients with hematologic disorders in comparison to other studies conducted on the African general population. Larger case control based studies with inclusion of more sample size are essential to corroborate the study evidence.