%0 Journal Article
%T First case of molecularly identified and genetically characterized human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 infection in a pregnant woman in non-endemic Japan.
%A Kuramitsu M
%A Okuma K
%A Horiya M
%A Sekizuka T
%A Kaneko N
%A Saito E
%A Sokunaga J
%A Kuroda M
%A Hamaguchi I
%J J Virol Methods
%V 287
%N 0
%D 01 2021
%M 33098958
%F 2.623
%R 10.1016/j.jviromet.2020.114005
%X Human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 (HTLV-2) is non-endemic in Japan unlike the related HTLV type 1. Previously, although HTLV-2-seropositivity was identified via western blotting in one male blood donor in Japan, there have been no reports of HTLV-2 provirus detection by nucleic acid testing. In this report, one Japanese pregnant woman was clinically diagnosed as being HTLV-2-infected with a line immunoassay for specific antibodies after primary testing through prenatal screening in Japan. In genomic DNA of her peripheral blood mononuclear cells, HTLV-2 proviral genome was detected by nucleic acid testing (three methods) with quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The full-genome sequence of this strain was successfully determined. The identified virus was interestingly characterized as a presumed progenitor of subtypes a and c by recombination region and phylogenetic tree analyses. In conclusion, the present infection is, to our knowledge, the first case of molecularly identified and genetically characterized HTLV-2 infection found via prenatal screening in non-endemic Japan.