Association of sicca syndrome with proviral load and proinflammatory cytokines in HTLV-1 infection

The sjögren syndrome has been diagnosed in patients with htlv-1 associated myelopathy and dry mouth and dry eyes are documented in htlv-1 carriers. however the diagnosis of sjögren syndrome in these subjects has been contested. in this cross-sectional study,we evaluated the role of immunological factors and proviral load,in sicca syndrome associated with htlv-1 in patients without myelopathy. subjects were recruited in the htlv-1 clinic,from 2009 to 2011. the proviral load and cytokine levels (ifn-γ,tnf-α,il-5,and il-10) were obtained from a database containing the values presented by the subjects at admission in the clinic. of the 272 participants,59 (21.7%) had sicca syndrome and in all of them anti-sjögren syndrome related antigen a (ssa) and antigen b (ssb) were negatives. the production of tnf-α and ifn-γ was higher in the group with sicca syndrome (p < 0.05) than in htlv-1 infected subjects without sicca syndrome. our data indicates that patients with sicca syndrome associated with htlv-1 do not have sjögren syndrome. however the increased production of tnf-α and ifn-γ in this group of patients may contribute to the pathogenesis of sicca syndrome associated with htlv-1. © 2016 clara mônica lima et al.