Quantification of T cell clonality in Human T cell leukaemia virus type-1 carriers can detect the development of Adult T cell Leukaemia early
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Adult T cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL) arises from clonally expanded T cells which are infected with Human T cell leukaemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1). Here, we show that ATL could be detected early in HTLV-1-carriers through quantification of T-cell receptor (TCR)Vβ subunit diversity on T-cells infected with HTLV-1 (CD3+CCR4+CD26-T-cells) using an ‘oligoclonality index’ (OCI-flow). We established a reference range for OCI-flow by analysing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from HTLV-1-carriers who had not developed ATL in a median of 10.5 years follow up (n=38) and patients with ATL (n=30). In a third cohort of HTLV-1-carriers with no history or clinical evidence of ATL (n=106), 19% of high proviral load (PVL, ≥4 copies of HTLV-1/100 PBMCs) carriers had an OCI-flow in the ATL range, >0.770. Carriers with an OCI-flow >0.770 (n=14) had higher lymphocyte counts and PVLs, and were more likely to have a family history of ATL than carriers with OCI-flow ≤0.770. ATL subsequently developed in two of these 14 carriers but no carriers with OCI-flow ≤0.770 (p=0.03, cumulative follow-up 129 person-years). This method can be used to identify a subset of high-PVL HTLV-1-carriers at increased risk of developing ATL who may benefit from intervention therapy, prior to the detection of disease.
Date Issued
2021-03-26
Date Acceptance
2021-03-04
Citation
Blood Cancer Journal, 2021, 11 (66), pp.1-11
ISSN
2044-5385
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Blood Cancer Journal
Volume
11
Issue
66
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41408-021-00458-8
Grant Number
RDA02
MR/R017271/1
Subjects
1102 Cardiorespiratory Medicine and Haematology
1112 Oncology and Carcinogenesis
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-03-26