Fig. 2.

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) proviral load in patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis before and after the treatment. Mean HTLV-1 proviral load decreased significantly after the treatment (paired sample t test p = 0.01). Two standard curves of absolute real-time polymerase chain reaction for Tax and albumin copy numbers were carried out on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and the HTLV-1 proviral load assessed using the equation (HTLV-1 DNA copy number/albumin DNA copy number/2) × 10⁴ and expressed as the number of HTLV-1 proviruses per 10⁴ PBMC