[Features of adult T-cell leukemia virus reproduction in B-cell lines and it's interaction with the Epstein-Barr herpesvirus].

Interaction between human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) with B cells and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was studied by immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, virus isolation in permissive T-cell cultures, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). HTLV-1 in vitro infects the B-cell cultures containing EBV but not EBV-negative cell lines. Productive infection of EBV+ B cells was associated with syncytium formation which led to the elimination of HTLV-1 producing cells. However, the remaining B-cell population contained gag, pol, and pX--the "silent" provirus sequences. HTLV-1 infection of B cells altered the expression of some latent proteins of EBV (EBNA-1, EBNA-2, EBNA-5, and LMP). The changes were represented by increase of molecular weight and/or appearance of additional proteins and were individual for each cell line. Alteration of EBV protein expression may change the functional activity of these proteins, but this hypothesis is to be tested.