Many replicating viruses, including HIV-1 and HTLV-1, are efficiently transmitted from the cell surface of actively infected cells upon contact with bystander cells. In a previous study, we reported the prolonged cell surface retention of VSV-G replication-deficient pseudotyped lentivector prior to endocytic entry. However, the competing kinetics of cell surface versus dissociation, neutralizat...

Human T-lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1) spreads efficiently between T-cells via a tight and highly organized cell-cell contact known as the virological synapse. It is now thought that many retroviruses and other viruses spread via a virological synapse, which may be defined as a virus-induced, specialized area of cell-to-cell contact that promotes the directed transmission of the virus between ce...

The immunopathology of human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) uveitis was addressed by using T cell clones (TCC) established from the intraocular fluid of patients with HTLV-I uveitis. Proviral DNA of HTLV-I was identified in 55 out of 94 (59%) or 13 out of 36 (36%) TCC from the ocular fluid or the peripheral blood of these patients, respectively. Most of HTLV-I-infected TCC had a CD3+...

Induction of apoptosis of virus-infected cells is an important host cell defence mechanism. However, some viruses have incorporated genes that encode anti-apoptotic proteins or modulate the expression of cellular regulators of apoptosis. Here, Edgar Meinl and colleagues discuss recent evidence that viral interference with host cell apoptosis leads to enhanced viral replication, and to evasion o...

BACKGROUND Retroviruses of human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-1 and HTLV-2) have been demonstrated to be endemic in the north-eastern region of Iran. This study was aimed to determine the HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 prevalence among healthy individuals in Neyshabur City during 2010-2014. METHODS A total of 8054 blood samples were collected from healthy participants in Neyshabur, North-Eastern Iran. The...

INTRODUCTION This study investigated the occurrence of Strongyloides stercoralis infestation and coinfection with HTLV-1/2 in Belém, Brazil. METHODS S. stercoralis was investigated in stool samples obtained from individuals infected with HTLV-1/2 and their uninfected relatives. RESULTS The frequency of S. stercoralis was 9% (9/100), including six patients infected with HTLV-1 (14.3%), two p...

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) may impact the clinical course of tuberculosis (TB). Both infections are highly endemic in Brazil. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HTLV-1/2 in TB patients in Central-West Brazil and to perform a genetic characterisation of the respective isolates. Of the 402 patients, six (1.49%) were positive for anti-HTLV and five (1.24%; 95% confid...

To investigate the origin of the African PTLV-I virus, we phylogenetically analyzed the available HTLV-I and STLV-I strains. We also attempted to date the presumed interspecies transmissions that resulted in the African HTLV-I subtypes. Molecular-clock analysis was performed using the Tamura-Nei substitution model and gamma distributed rate heterogeneity based on the maximum-likelihood topology...

When the human T cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) is integrated with the host cell genome (provirus), its proviral DNA is a replication marker. Proviral load appears to be an important factor in the development of diseases related to these retroviruses. In this study, a methodology for absolute quantification of the HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 proviral load using real-time PCR was developed. Fifty-three bl...

The susceptibility to Fas-mediated apoptosis was evaluated in seven T-cell lines (two infected with HTLV-2, one with HTLV-1, and four HTLV-free) as well as in Jurkat cells transfected with a Tax-2 expressing vector. Fas-mediated apoptosis was significantly reduced in the HTLV-1- and HTLV-2-infected lines in comparison with the HTLV-free lines regardless of the surface expression of Fas antigen ...