Type C retroviruses of the human T cell leukemia family are not evident in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Type C retroviruses of the human T cell leukemia virus (HTLV) family have been implicated in immune aberrations observed in patients with leukemias, lymphomas, and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. We have investigated whether retroviruses of the HTLV family are involved in the etiopathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by using 1) an immunoenzymatic assay to measure antibodies to HTLV-I and HTLV-III proteins in the sera of 30 patients with SLE, and 2) nucleic acid hybridization techniques (Southern transfer) to detect proviral sequences of HTLV-I, HTLV-II, and HTLV-III in DNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 10 of these patients. Sera from 20 normal individuals served as controls. None of the 30 sera from SLE patients or the 20 sera from normal controls had any detectable antibodies to HTLV-I or HTLV-III. Nucleic acid hybridization studies also failed to detect any HTLV proviral sequences. These results suggest that viruses of the HTLV family do not participate in the etiopathogenesis of SLE.