HTLV-1 infection promotes excessive T cell activation and transformation into adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma.

Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) mainly infects CD4+ T cells and induces chronic, persistent infection in infected individuals, with some developing adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). HTLV-1 alters cellular differentiation, activation, and survival; however, it is unknown whether and how these changes contribute to the malignant transformation of infected cells. In this study, we used single-cell RNA-sequencing and T cell receptor-sequencing to investigate the differentiation and HTLV-1-mediated transformation of T cells.