Molecular Features of the Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus

Abstract

The first oncogenic human retrovirus was identified in a T-lymphoblastoid cell line that had been established from a patient diagnosed with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (Poiesz et al., 1980). In retrospect, it is likely that this patient had adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). Shortly thereafter, another cell line derived from a patient with ATL was shown to harbor a type C retrovirus, and to produce antigens reactive with sera obtained from ATL patients (Hinuma et al., 1981; Yoshida et al., 1982). The viruses produced from these two distinct cell lines were determined to be identical and were designated human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) (Popovic et al., 1982). It has subsequently been established by seroepi-demiology and molecular studies that HTLV-I is the etiologic agent of ATL. ATL is endemic to regions of southern Japan, central Africa, northeastern South America, the Caribbean basin, and the southeastern United States (Blattner et al., 1982; Catovsky et al., 1982; Blayney et al., 1983; Bunn et al., 1983; Merino et al., 1984; Saxinger et al., 1984; Su et al., 1985; Biggar et al, 1985). In addition, a significant number of intravenous drug abusers in the United States and Europe have been shown to be infected with HTLV (Tedder et al., 1984; Jason et al., 1985; Sandler, 1986; Robert-Guroff et al., 1986; Lee et al., 1989) (see Sugamura and Hinuma, 1993).