Quantification of the virus-host interaction in human T lymphotropic virus I infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

HTLV-I causes the disabling inflammatory disease HAM/TSP: there is no vaccine, no satisfactory treatment and no means of assessing the risk of disease or prognosis in infected people. Like many immunopathological diseases with a viral etiology the outcome of infection is thought to depend on the virus-host immunology interaction. However the dynamic virus-host interaction is complex and current models of HAM/TSP pathogenesis are conflicting. The CD8+ cell response is thought to be a determinant of both HTLV-I proviral load and disease status but its effects can obscure other factors.

Results

We show here that in the absence of CD8+ cells, CD4+ lymphocytes from HAM/TSP patients expressed HTLV-I protein significantly more readily than lymphocytes from asymptomatic c

SUBMITTER: Asquith B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1327681 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature