Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Infectious Diseases, Parasitology, Tropical Medicine, I-ASSOCIATED MYELOPATHY, SPASTIC PARAPARESIS HAM/TSP, LEUKEMIA-VIRUS TYPE-1, CD4(+) T-CELLS, HTLV-I, CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID, PROVIRAL LOAD, DIETARY ANTIOXIDANTS, NEUROLOGICAL-DISEASE, IMMUNE-RESPONSE, Adult, Aged, Antineoplastic Agents, Ascorbic Acid, Cell Death, Cells, Cultured, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Humans, Immunologic Factors, Interferon-alpha, Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell, Male, Microarray Analysis, Middle Aged, Organ Culture Techniques, Spinal Cord Diseases, Young Adult, 06 Biological Sciences, 11 Medical and Health Sciences, 31 Biological sciences, 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences, 42 Health sciences

Abstract:

Clear therapeutic guidelines for HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) are missing due to the lack of randomized double-blind controlled clinical trials. Moderate yet similar clinical benefit has been demonstrated for IFN-α and high-dose ascorbic acid (AA) monotherapy in a large open clinical trial. However, there is a lack of in vivo and in vitro studies exploring and comparing the effects of high-dose AA and IFN-α treatment in the context of HAM/TSP. Therefore, we performed the first comparative analysis of the ex vivo and in vitro molecular and cellular mechanisms of action of IFN-α and high-dose AA in HAM/TSP.