To confirm whether treatment with minocycline could inhibit antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses of patients with HAM/TSP, we examined CD107a and IFN-γ expression in CD8+ T cells of patients with HAM/TSP, who were subtyped as HLA-A*201, by stimulation with a known immunodominant HLA-A2-binding HTLV-I Tax11-19 peptide [35]. This evidence concerns the gene HLA-A and tropical spastic paraparesis.