Immunological aspects of HTLV-1 persistence; for the prevention and treatment of Adult T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma (ATL).

Human T-cell leukaemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1) causes the highly aggressive malignancy adult T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma (ATL) in approximately 5 % of chronically infected carriers. HTLV-1 persists in the host by enhancing survival of infected-T-cells despite the presence of a strong immune response. Therefore, asymptomatic HTLV-1 carriers have a lifelong balance between infected cell proliferation and the host antiviral immune response.