Retroviral activity in Behcet's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus detected by a PCR-based reverse transcriptase assay

The objective of this study was to assess retroviral activity in Behcet's s yndrome (BS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Serum and per ipheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from patients and norm al volunteers and PBMC cultured with and without phytohaemagglutinin stimul ation. Reverse transcriptase (RT) activity in serum and culture supernatant s was measured using a sensitive polymerase chain reaction-based assay. An RT activity above the levels in normal controls was detected in a minority of patients with BS (2/15) and SLE (1/13) and was typically present in all three types of sample. Elevated levels of RT activity were not detected in follow-up samples from the two BS patients. Our findings indicate that elev ated RT activity is present in only a minority of patients with BS and SLE. Simultaneously elevated activity in all three sample types implicates PBMC as the source of this retroviral activity.