FREQUENT DETECTION OF ANTIBODIES AGAINST HTLV ANTIGENS IN PATIENTS WITH AIDS-RELATED NON-HODGKIN-LYMPHOMA

We studied the prevalence of anti-HTLV-I/II antibodies in 22 patients with AIDS-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), 453 HIV-1-infected patie nts without lymphoma (194 of whom were diagnosed as having AIDS), and 6 HIV-1-positive and 75 HIV-1-negative patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, The frequency of serological reactivity against HTLV antigens was sig nificantly higher in the AIDS patients with lymphoma than in those wit hout (8 of 22, 36.4% vs, 20 of 194, 10.3%-p = 0.0027), One of the HN-P -positive and none of the HIV-1-negative patients with Hodgkin lymphom a showed anti-HTLV-I/II reactivity, Four of the eight seropositive NHL patients showed antibodies directed against HTLV-II recombinant antig ens when tested for serological discrimination in a Western blot assay , A PCR study of PBMCs from the only patient with NHL still alive at t he time of the study showed HTLV-II-specific sequences in the genomic DNA. These data suggest that HTLV-II or a closely homologous retroviru s infects a high proportion of patients with AIDS-associated NHL.