VIRAL PROTEIN HELPS INFECTED T CELLS STICK TO UNINFECTED CELLS
VIRAL PROTEIN HELPS INFECTED T CELLS STICK TO UNINFECTED CELLS -- New research at OSU shows that a protein made by a cancer virus causes infected immune cells to cling to other immune cells, enabling the virus to spread. The virus, known as the human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), is transmitted mainly when infected cells called T lymphocytes, or T cells, touch uninfected T cells. The finding helps explain how this cell-to-cell transmission happens. It suggests that an HTLV-1 protein known as p12 activates infected T cells and causes them to become sticky and adhere to other T cells. The findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Immunology, also suggest that a drug that inhibits the p12 protein might help prevent HTLV-1 transmission. The research was led by scientists at the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center and OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. "It indicates that the p12 protein plays an important role in programming infected cells for cell-to-cell transmission," says principal investigator Michael Lairmore, DVM, PhD , professor and chair, OSU Department of Veterinary Biosciences and a member of the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center's Viral Oncogenesis Program. HTLV-1 infects an estimated 15 to 25 million people worldwide. About five percent of those infected develop adult T cell leukemia or lymphoma.
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