A new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting the antibody to a human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) tax gene product, p40tax, has been developed. By this ELISA method, we have investigated the relationship between the presence of p40tax antibody in HTLV-I-infected mothers and the virus transmission rate from mothers to their children. The rate of mother-to-child transmission of HTLV-I was higher in p40tax antibody-positive mothers than in antibody-negative ones. Thus, the presence of p40tax antibody may indicate an increased risk of vertical transmission of HTLV-I.
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Sawada et al. (1989) studied this question.
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