Flow cytometric assessment of T‐cell receptor β‐chain constant region 1/2 skewing as a surrogate marker for clonality in human T‐cell leukaemia virus type‐1–infected cells
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Estimating T-cell clonality within human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)–infected cell populations may aid risk assessment and diagnosis of adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL). However, direct assessment of HTLV-1 integration-site clonality requires genetic analyses that are costly and labour-intensive. We developed a simple flow cytometric surrogate assay by combining the HTLV-1 analysis system by flow cytometry (HAS-Flow) method, which efficiently identifies HTLV-1–infected cells, with T-cell receptor β-chain constant region (TRBC1/2) staining. We analysed 53 HTLV-1–infected individuals, including asymptomatic carriers (n = 25), patients with HTLV-1–associated myelopathy (n = 4) and patients with ATL (n = 24). TRBC1/2 skewing was quantified using the dominant TRBC ratio. The dominant TRBC ratio was significantly higher in ATL than in non-ATL cases and effectively discriminated ATL from non-ATL cases (Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC], 0.913; 95% confidence interval, 0.803–1.000; p < 0.0001). It correlated with established markers of disease progression, including abnormal lymphocyte burden, proviral load and soluble interleukin-2 receptor levels, as well as clonality assessed by two independent HTLV-1 integration-site–based methods (viral integration site and RAISING-CLOVA). These findings indicate that assessment of TRBC1/2 skewing in HTLV-1–infected cells (HAS-TRBC method) is a simple, cost-effective surrogate for estimating T-cell clonality within HTLV-1–infected cell populations, with potential clinical utility.
Date Issued
2026-10-16
Date Acceptance
2026-10-05
Citation
British Journal of Haematology, 2026
ISSN
0007-1048
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
British Journal of Haematology
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Author(s). British Journal of Haematology published by British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-10-16