Association of cytokines, neurological disability, and disease duration in HAM/TSP patients

• Autor(a) principal: Muniz,André Luiz
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Rodrigues Jr.,Waldyr, Santos,Silvane B., Jesus,Amélia R. de, Porto,Aurélia F., Castro,Néviton, Oliveira-Filho,Jamary, Almeida,Juliana Passos, Moreno-Carvalho,Otávio, Carvalho,Edgar M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2006000200009
• topic: human T-lymphotropic virus 1; nervous system diseases; cytokines; neurological disability

OBJECTIVE: To identify clinical and immunological markers associated with HTLV-I associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). METHOD: 237 HTLV-I infected individuals were clinically assessed. They were classified according to the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and Osame’s Motor Disability Score (OMDS). Cytokine levels were determined in HTLV-I seropositive individuals. RESULTS: 37 patients had HAM/TSP. There was a correlation between the degrees of disability assessed by both scales. There was also a correlation between the duration of HAM/TSP and the severity of disability assessed by either EDSS or OMDS. Higher levels of IFN-gamma were detected in unstimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HAM/TSP patients as compared with HTLV-I carriers. CONCLUSION: This study shows the validity of the neurological scales to classify the degree of neurological disability in HTLV-I carriers and suggests a progressive behavior of HAM/TSP. This study also shows that IFN-gamma in PBMC supernatants are markers of HAM/TSP.