How Leukemia Viruses Spread from Cell to Cell

Researchers have learned how human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I), which causes adult T-cell leukemia, spreads from cell to cell within the body without the release of infectious virus particles. Their findings were published February 13, 2003, in the online edition of Science.

It was known that cell contact was required for efficient transmission of HTLV-I between cells and between individuals, because naturally infected lymphocytes produce virtually no cell-free infectious HTLV-I particles. However, the mechanism of this transmission was not well understood.

In the current study, investigators from Imperial College (London, UK; www.imperial.ac.uk) and their colleagues found that cell contact rapidly induced polarization of the cytoskeleton of the infected cell to the cell-cell junction. HTLV-I core (Gag protein) complexes and the HTLV-I genome accumulated at the cell-cell junction and were then transferred to the uninfected cell.

Senior author Professor Charles Bangham from the department of immunology of Imperial College explained, "The HTLV-1 virus affects between 10 and 20 million people worldwide with around 2-3% developing leukemia. Although this research is not a cure, it does show how the virus is able to spread through the body and infect other people. From this we hope to be able to develop more effective treatments for this fatal disease.”

Professor Bangham went on to say, "HTLV-1 is a very similar virus to HIV. It is spread through the same methods, and if we can use this research to develop a way of treating HTLV-1, this research could be a crucial first step towards developing new and more-effective treatments to combat the global AIDS epidemic.”



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