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...

Substantial evidence indicates that several common viruses are clearly or probable causal factors in the etiology of specific malignancies. These viruses either normally establish latency or can become persistent infections. Oncogenesis is probably linked to an enhanced level of viral activation in the infected host, reflecting heavy viral dose or compromised immune control. The major virus-mal...

Non-Hodgkin lymphomas develop from nodal and extranodal lymphoid tissues. A distinct subset of extranodal lymphomas arising from B cells of the marginal zone (MZ) of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) or spleen has been individualized. Growing evidence indicates that MZ lymphomas are associated with chronic antigenic stimulation by microbial pathogens and/or autoantigens. The list of micr...

human t lymphotropic virus type i (htlv-i) is a retrovirus which is associated with adult t cells leukaemia (atl) and htlv-i-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (ham/tsp) in a minority of htlv-i-infected individuals. it is not clear why a minority of htlv-i-infected individuals develop ham/tsp and majority remains lifelong carriers. it seems that the interaction between the virus...

This study aimed at implementing a Nested-polymerase chain reaction (Nested-PCR) for the molecular diagnosis of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I/II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II) infections in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of infected subjects in Argentina. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay for the detection of regional strains were assessed by comparing them with the molecular assa...

To better understand the origins and modes of transmission of HTLV-3 and to search for other retroviral infections (HTLV-1, HTLV-2, foamy viruses), we studied the family of a HTLV-3-infected individual (Pyl43), from Cameroon. Thirty-five persons were included. All adult men were still actively hunting nonhuman primates (NHP). All women were also butchering and cutting-up animals. Five persons r...

Langerhans cells (LC), the dendritic antigen presenting cells of the skin, mature into potent immunostimulatory cells during migration to regional lymph nodes, where they are identified as interdigitating cells (IDC). Since mature Langerhans cells (mLC) resemble IDC in phenotype and immunostimulatory capacity, we examined whether these cells were susceptible to infection with macrophagetropic a...

Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) is transmitted directly between cells via an organized cell-cell contact called a virological synapse (VS). The VS has been studied by light microscopy, but the ultrastructure of the VS and the nature of the transmitted viral particle have remained unknown. Cell-free enveloped virions of HTLV-1 are undetectable in the serum of individuals infected with the ...

Reported at the beginning of the 1980s, Human T lymphotropic viruses type 1 and 2 (HTLV1, HTLV 2) were the first retroviruses to have been detected in human beings. HTLV 1 was isolated from adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and first described by Takatsuki et al. in Japan in 1976, as a malignancy that only affects T cells and only in adults (1, 2). Albeit infrequent, HTLV-1 infection may lead to seve...