Identification of Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Pro-Invasion in Patients with β-Thalassemia Major Using TaqMan Real-Time PCR in Tonekabon, Iran

Background: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a human retrovirus that causes two distinct diseases, adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and a progressive and degenerative myelin disorder called myelopathy associated with HTLV-1 (tropical spastic paraparesis). Similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), infections caused by HTLV-1 and -2 and retroviruses are persistent and long-lasting. Less than 5% of these infections are HTLV-related illnesses, but their treatment modalities are rare and their prognosis is poor. They are often fatal. Patients with β-thalassemia major are clearly at higher risk for HTLV-1 infection due to the need for frequent blood transfusions. Objectives: The current study aimed at detecting the molecular screening for HTLV-1 infection based on fluorescent probe in patients with β-thalassemia. Methods: The current experimental study was conducted on 80 blood samples collected from patients with β-thalassemia major in Shahid Rajaee Hospital of Tonekabon, Iran. After DNA extraction by the Iranian kit, molecular biological system transfer (MBST) Cinna Gen company (Tehran, Iran), TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was employed to detect DNA HTLV-1 genome and a tax gene-specific integrated with the genome of patients’ lymphocyte was obtained. Results: Results of TaqMan RT-PCR indicated that out of 80 patients with β-thalassemia major referred to Shahid Rajai’e Hospital, two (2.5%) had HTLV-1. Conclusions: Compared to other molecular and serologic techniques, HTLV can be applied to detect HTLV-1 in blood banks due to its sensitivity, simplicity, higher speed, and the ability to simultaneously diagnose HTLV and lower costs than that of fluorescence molecular methods.