Human T Lypmphotrophic Virus (HTLV1) Related Diseases

By discovery of HTLV1 virus in 1898 as etiology of the diseases till present, they are considered as the first enemy of human being. 1 Today, advances in im-munology have shown that the virus per se may not be the main cause of disease but the interaction between the virus and immune system is important in pathogenesis of the disease. For example in hepatitis B virus after entrance to the hepatocytes, three types of immune reactions may occur including: i). The severe attachment of T lymphocytes 2 to infected hepatocytes that would lead to necrosis and may result into an acute fulfillment of hepatitis, ii). A mild respond of T lymphocytes with minimal injury to hepatocytes as a balance reaction of B lymphocyte would result into a mild hepatitis and nearly a permanent immunity without any chronic disease or hepato-cellular carcinoma and iii). Absence or presence of a minimal response that may be prone to hepatocellular carcinomas. Most treatment modalities are on a basis of suppressing the immune response after administration of steroids or cytotoxic drugs. In the last twenty years, a correlation between psychology and immune system by the axis of hypothalamus was shown. Hypophysis and adrenal glands play an important role in psycho-neuro-endocrino-immunology and treatment of the disease. 3 The enigma of retrovirus which has a direct correlation with immune system is another interesting point which I would like to discuss briefly here mainly in relation to two articles in the present issue of this journal. Biology of the Virus Human T Lypmphotrophic Virus (HTLV) from the family of retroviruses has been divided into three major types of I, II and III. 4 The structure as well as epidemiology of the virus and related diseases have been investigated broadly in the last two decades, both in the world and also in Iran. HTLV1 is a 9 Kb Delta virus that could not be found in the serum of animal as well as human being. It has affinity to T lymphocyte, 5 monocytes, fi-broblasts and synovial cells. So the transmission of the virus occurs by an infected cell. 6 Induction of lymphoma and leukemia by HTLV1 seems to happen by a tax protein. 7 The detail mechanism of cancer development could be found in literature. 8 Epidemiology of the virus after that spread to several areas of the world was considered as endemic regions for HTLV1. 9 Since most …