ABSTRACT
The Wellcozyme HTLV-I/II ELISA (Murex Diagnostics) was evaluated in 7800 samples of various serum panels. Repeat activity was found by Wellcozyme in (A) 1/2181 (0.05%) Dutch blood donors, (B) 44/3036 (1.4%) Curaçao (Caribbean area) blood donors, (C) 46/2533 (1.8%) individuals of different Ethiopian population subsets, (D) 30/30 (100%) confirmed anti-HTLV-I positive samples and (E) 20/20 (100%) HTLV-II PCR-positive samples. All 91 Wellcozyme-positive samples were tested for confirmation by Western blot (WB, Diagnostic Biotechnology). Among Wellcozyme HTLV-I/II ELISA-positive individuals, HTLV-I/II WB positivity was found in 0/1 Dutch blood donors, 40/44 (88.9%) Curaçao blood donors and 20/46 (43.5%) Ethiopian individuals. HTLV-I positivity was found in 40 (1.3%) WB-positive Curaçao blood donors and in 9 (0.35%) Ethiopian individuals. HTLV-II positivity was found in 11 (0.43%) WB-positive Ethiopian individuals. The Wellcozyme HTLV-I/II ELISA had a specificity of 99.95% in Dutch blood donors and a sensitivity of 100% on confirmed HTLV-I- and HTLV-II-positive samples. In Ethiopia 55% of the HTLV-I/II WB-positive individuals were exclusively HTLV-II positive, whereas in Curaçao no HTLV-II infections were found.
Subject(s)
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/methods , HTLV-I Antibodies/blood , HTLV-I Infections/diagnosis , HTLV-II Antibodies/blood , HTLV-II Infections/diagnosis , Blotting, Western , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Female , HTLV-I Antibodies/immunology , HTLV-I Antigens/immunology , HTLV-I Infections/immunology , HTLV-II Antibodies/immunology , HTLV-II Infections/immunology , Humans , Male , Recombinant Fusion Proteins/immunology , Sensitivity and Specificity , Seroepidemiologic StudiesABSTRACT
The cytotoxicities of mitomycin C (MMC) and doxorubicin (DOX) have been proposed to depend on intracellular reduction by reduced flavoproteins. We investigated whether MMC- and DOX-induced cytotoxicity could be inhibited by competing for electrons from reduced flavoproteins by the artificial electron acceptors phenazine methosulfate (PMS), menadione (MEN) and methylene blue (MB). In intact SW-1573 human lung tumor cells these compounds proved to be excellent electron acceptors, as judged from their capacity to induce high levels of cyanide-resistant respiration. In addition, PMS, MEN and MB were found to decrease the cytotoxicity of MMC, by 90, 63 and 29%, respectively, at concentrations that were themselves completely nontoxic. In contrast, DOX cytotoxicity was not detectably affected. These results suggest that in SW-1573 cells flavoprotein-mediated bioreduction is required for the cytotoxic effect of MMC, but not for that of DOX.
