HAS-Flow May Be an Adequate Method for Evaluating Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Infected Cells in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1-Positive Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Receiving Antirheumatic Therapies: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Observation Study

Kunihiko Umekita; Yuki Hashikura; Akira Takaki; Masatoshi Kimura; Katsumi Kawano; Chihiro Iwao; Shunichi Miyauchi; Takeshi Kawaguchi; Motohiro Matsuda; Yayoi Hashiba; Toshihiko Hidaka

doi:10.3390/v15020468

HAS-Flow May Be an Adequate Method for Evaluating Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Infected Cells in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1-Positive Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Receiving Antirheumatic Therapies: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Observation Study

Viruses. 2023 Feb 8;15(2):468. doi: 10.3390/v15020468.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Respirology, Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases and Neurology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Kihara 5200, Kiyotake, Miyazaki 889-1692, Japan.
² Department of Clinical Laboratory, University of Miyazaki Hospital, Kihara 5200, Kiyotake, Miyazaki 889-1692, Japan.
³ Institute of Rheumatology, Miyazaki Zenjinkai Hospital, Miyazaki 880-0834, Japan.

Abstract

The study aims to assess the usefulness of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-infected cell analysis using flow cytometry (HAS-Flow) as a monitoring method for adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) development in HTLV-1-positive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) under treatment with antirheumatic therapies. A total of 13 HTLV-1-negative and 57 HTLV-1-positive RA patients participated in this study, which was used to collect clinical and laboratory data, including HAS-Flow and HTLV-1 proviral load (PVL), which were then compared between the two groups. CADM1 expression on CD4+ cells in peripheral blood (PB) was used to identify HTLV-1-infected cells. The population of CADM1+ CD4+ cells was significantly higher in HTLV-1-positive RA patients compared to HTLV-1-negative RA patients. The population of CADM1+ CD4+ cells was correlated with HTLV-1 PVL values. There were no antirheumatic therapies affecting both the expression of CADM1 on CD4+ cells and PVLs. Six HTLV-1-positive RA patients who indicated both high HTLV-1 PVL and a predominant pattern of CADM1+ CD7neg CD4+ cells in HAS-Flow can be classified as high-risk for ATL progression. HAS-Flow could be a useful method for monitoring high-risk HTLV-1-positive RA patients who are at risk of developing ATL during antirheumatic therapies.

Keywords: adult T-cell leukaemia (ATL); flow cytometry; human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1); rheumatoid arthritis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Antirheumatic Agents* / therapeutic use
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / drug therapy
Cell Adhesion Molecule-1
Cross-Sectional Studies
Human T-lymphotropic virus 1*
Humans
Leukemia, T-Cell*
Proviruses
Retrospective Studies

Substances

Antirheumatic Agents
CADM1 protein, human
Cell Adhesion Molecule-1

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Practical Research Project for Rare/Intractable Diseases of the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (Grant No. JP19ek0109356, 20ek0109356h0003, 21ek0109529h0001), a Health and Labour Sciences Research Grant on Rare and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (Grant No. 19FC1007), Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) [KAKENHI] (Grant No. 20K08776) and a Grant-in-Aid for Clinical Research from Miyazaki University Hospital.