The presence of anti-Tax antibody responses in human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I)-infected individuals has been correlated with increased proviral load, increased risk of transmitting infection, and increased risk of developing tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). In this study, a rabbit model of HTLV-I infection was used to determine whether anti-Tax an...

The proviral DNA of human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I) is known to be integrated monoclonally in the malignant cells of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), which is a peripheral T-cell malignancy caused by this virus. We studied the relationship between the integration patterns of HTLV-I and clinical characteristics in 89 patients with ATL. The proviral DNA of HTLV-I was examine...

The Human T lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) infects predominantly T cells, inducing proliferation and lymphocyte activation. Additionally, HTLV-1 infected subjects are more susceptible to other infections caused by other intracellular agents. Monocytes/macrophages are important cells in the defense against intracellular pathogens. Our aims were to determine the frequency of monocytes subsets...

Although most patients with the cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, mycosis fungoides (MF), are seronegative for human T-cell lymphotropic virus-I or -II (HTLV-I/II) when tested by assays that measure only antibodies to the viral structural proteins, the majority of such patients harbor HTLV-I-related pol and tax proviral sequences that encode proteins not included in routinely used serologic tests. Tax...

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a persistent CD4+ T-lymphotropic retrovirus. Most HTLV-1-infected individuals remain asymptomatic, but a proportion develop adult T cell leukemia or inflammatory disease. It is not fully understood how HTLV-1 persists despite a strong immune response or what determines the risk of HTLV-1-associated diseases. Until recently, it has been difficult to ...

Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a persistent human retrovirus characterized by life-long infection and risk of developing HAM/TSP, a progressive neurological and inflammatory disease, and adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). Chronically infected individuals often harbor high proviral loads despite maintaining a persistently activated immune response. Based on a new hypothesis for the pers...

HTLV-1–associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) develops in a subset of human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)–infected individuals.1 Its evolution is chronic and progressive, without remission.2 Recently, a study using a histone deacetylase inhibitor reported, for the first time, a spectacular decline in the HTLV-I proviral load in a series of HAM/TSP patients.3 Unfortu...

The human retroviruses HIV-1 and HTLV-1/HTLV-2 share similar routes of transmission but cause significantly different diseases. In this review we have outlined the immune mediated mechanisms by which HTLVs affect HIV-1 disease in co-infected hosts. During co-infection with HIV-1, HTLV-2 modulates the cellular microenvironment favoring its own viability and inhibiting HIV-1 progression. This is ...

While human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviral genome is readily detected in leukemic lymphocytes from adult T-cell leukemia patients, viral antigens or viral RNA are not expressed unless these cells are cultured. To address the problem of possible restriction mechanism of HTLV-I replication, we studied the methylation state of provirus in four HTLV-I transformed cell lines. These ce...

BACKGROUND Human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is an inflammatory disease which occurs in less than 2% of HTLV-I -infected individuals. High proviral load, high HTLV-I-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte frequency (CTL) and host genetic factors such as HLA all appear to be associated with HTLV-I infection. Previous studie...