The major internal structural protein of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III), a virus etiologically implicated in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), was purified to homogeneity. This 24,000-molecular-weight protein (p24) was shown to lack immunologic cross-reacting antigenic determinants shared by other known retroviruses, including HTLV-I and HTLV-II, with the exception...

Ten human monoclonal antibodies derived from peripheral B cells of a patient with human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-associated myelopathy are described. One monoclonal antibody recognized a linear epitope within the carboxy-terminal 43 amino acids of HTLV gp21, and two monoclonal antibodies recognized linear epitopes within HTLV type 1 (HTLV-1) gp46. The remaining seven monoclonal antibodi...

Human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is one of the most intriguing retroviruses infecting humans. Most commonly, infection remains undetected, since it does not cause obvious harm, yet in 4-9% of patients, this infection can be devastating, causing adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and/or HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). This review concentrates on all inf...

Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1 - associated myelopathy and tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). HTLV-1 has a preferential tropism for CD4 T cells in healthy carriers and ATL patients, while both CD4 and CD8 T cells serve as viral reservoirs in HAM/TSP patients. HTLV-1 has also been detected other cell types, includ...

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) persistently infects humans, and the proviral loads that persist in vivo vary widely among individuals. Elevation in the proviral load is associated with serious HTLV-1-mediated diseases, such as adult T-cell leukemia and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. However, it remains controversial whether HTLV-1-specific T-cell immunit...

objectives Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-1 causes T-cell leukaemia and myelopathy. Together with HTLV-2, it is endemic in some African nations. Seroprevalence data from Malawi are scarce, with no reports on associated disease incidence. HTLV seroprevalence and type were tested in 418 healthy mothers from Malawi. In addition, we tested the sera of 534 children to investigate mother-to-child ...

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 are distinct oncogenic retroviruses that infect several cell types but display their biological and pathogenic activity only in T cells. Previous studies have indicated that in vivo HTLV-1 has a preferential tropism for CD4+ T cells, whereas HTLV-2 in vivo tropism is less clear but appears to favor CD8+ T cells. Both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells a...

although the structure of human t lymphoptropic virus type i (htlv-i) has been known well, the function of some proteins encoded by htlv-i px region is not fully understood. furthermore, the responses of the immune system to htlv-i remain still unknown. most of htlv-i-infected individuals show a strong and persistently activated cytotoxic t-cell (ctl) response to the virus. the frequency of htl...

Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is associated with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and with a chronic degenerative myelopathy. However, another major type of HTLV, HTLV-II, has been isolated only sporadically, and little is known of disease associations, transmission routes, and risk factors for HTLV-II infection. Recent studies indicate that a high percentage of certain groups of i.v...

The current diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic virus type-2 (HTLV-2) infection is based on the search of specific antibodies; nevertheless, several studies conducted in Brazil pointed deficiencies of the commercially available kits in detecting HTLV-2, mostly in HIV/AIDS patients. This study searched for the presence of HTLV-1 and -2 in 758 HIV/AIDS patients from Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. Serum ...