%0 Journal Article %T HTLV-2B Strains, Similar to Those Found in Several Amerindian Tribes, Are Endemic in Central African Bakola Pygmies. %+ Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes %+ Génétique Humaine des Maladies Infectieuses (Inserm U980) %+ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) %+ Génétique Evolutive Humaine - Human Evolutionary Genetics %A Mauclère, Philippe %A Afonso, Philippe Vicente %A Meertens, Laurent %A Plancoulaine, Sabine %A Calattini, Sara %A Froment, Alain %A van Beveren, Monique %A de Thé, Guy %A Quintana-Murci, Lluis %A Mahieux, Renaud %A Gessain, Antoine %< avec comité de lecture %@ 0022-1899 %J Journal of Infectious Diseases %I Oxford University Press (OUP) %V 203 %N 9 %P 1316-23 %8 2011-05 %D 2011 %R 10.1093/infdis/jir031 %M 21459818 %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and ParasitologyJournal articles %X Background. The presence and origin of endemic foci of human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV2) infection in Africa remain a matter of debate. Methods. To better appreciate such determinants, we performed a survey of 1918 inhabitants from Cameroon forest areas, including 1051 Bakola Pygmies and 867 Bantus. Results. The overall HTLV-1/2 seroprevalence was 4% (49 cases of HTLV-1 and 27 cases of HTLV-2 infection). Both infections were mainly restricted to the Bakola Pygmies, with surprisingly no HTLV-2 infections in the Bantu population. Both HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 seroprevalences increased with age. There was evidence of ongoing HTLV-2 transmission in this population. Lymphoid T cell lines producing HTLV-2 were established. HTLV-2 long terminal repeat sequences (672 base pairs) obtained from 7 infected Bakola were highly similar to each other (<1% nucleotide divergence), as well as to Amerindian HTLV-2B strains. Analyses on a complete sequence (8954 base pairs) confirmed that it was a typical HTLV-2 subtype B strain. Along with molecular clock analysis, these data strongly suggest that HTLV-2 has been endemic in the Bakola Pygmy population for a long time. Conclusions. This study demonstrates clearly an HTLV-2 endemicity with ongoing transmission in an African population. Furthermore, it give insights into central questions regarding the origins and evolution rate of HTLV-2 and the migrations of infected populations. %G English %2 https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-00590844/document %2 https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-00590844/file/J_Infect_Dis.-2011-MaucleI_re-1316-23.pdf %L pasteur-00590844 %U https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-00590844 %~ IRD %~ PASTEUR %~ UNIV-PARIS5 %~ CNRS %~ RIIP_PARIS %~ UNIV-PARIS %~ UP-SCIENCES %~ EVO-GEN-HUM %~ PASTEUR_UMR2000