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 para- paresis). 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.