MOLECULAR AND IMMUNOLOGIC STUDIES OF HUMAN T CELL LEUKEMIA VIRUS TYPE II

我们实验室的研究集中在分子和 人类T细胞嗜淋巴细胞病毒II型的免疫学特性。 使用从我们的患者人群中分离的病毒，我们已经证明 事实上有三种分子亚型的病毒， 现在被命名为HTLV-IIa、IIb和IIc。 初步研究还表明， 这表明，这些可能是表型差异之间的三个 亚型 具体地说，可以证明， 被认为在HTLV白血病发生中很重要的蛋白质， 亚型和目前的研究正在进行中，以确定这是否可能 导致亚型致病性不同。 在我们的免疫学中， 我们的研究集中在体内HTLV-II感染的向性上， 研究感染是否导致感染的克隆扩增， 细胞群 这些研究表明，所有三种病毒亚型 对CD 8 + T淋巴细胞具有优先趋向性。 此外 感染似乎确实会导致这些疾病的扩大。 正在进行的研究和 未来将确定病毒调节蛋白在这一过程中的作用。 过程，以及扩张作为病毒早期事件的重要性- 诱发白血病

Studies from our laboratory have focussed on the molecular and immunological properties of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II. Employing virus isolates from our patient population we have demonstrated that there are in fact three molecular subtypes of the virus which have now been designated HTLV-IIa, IIb and IIc. Preliminary studies have also suggested that these may be phenotypic differences between the three subtypes. Specifically it could be shown that the tax protein which is believed to be important in HTLV leukemogensis differs between the subtypes and current studies are underway to determine if this may result in idfferences in subtype pathogenicity. In our immunological studies we have focussed on the tropism of HTLV-II infection in vivo and investigated whether infection porduces clonal expansion of the infected cell populations. These studies have shown that all three virus subtypes have a preferential tropism for CD8+ T lymphocytes. In addition the infection does appear to cause expansion of these. Studies underway and in the future will determine the role of virus regulatory proteins in this process, and the importance of expansion as an early event in virus- induced leukemogenesis.