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Immunopathology associated with human lymphotropic retroviruses
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.
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.