Immunopathology associated with human lymphotropic retroviruses

Abstract

The human lymphocytotropic retroviruses, despite the fact that their immunopathology varies from acute immunodeficiency to leukemia, have several features in common: they are exogenous viruses isolated from mature T cells, especially T4+ T-cells; they preferentially infect mature T4+ T cells in vitro, although other kinds of cells can be infected (no pathologic effects have been associated with infection of nonlymphoid cells); they possess a reverse transcriptase with similar size and preference for Mg++; they have a unique pX sequence in their genome which codes for a protein which is responsible for trans-activation of viral and possibly cellular genes, and in vitro infection of some T cells induces either continuous proliferation or cytotoxicity which mimic the in vivo manifestations of the virus.