HBZ is an immunogenic protein, but not a target antigen for human T-cell leukemia virus type 1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

Abstract

Recently, HBZ has been reported to play an important role in the proliferation of adult T-cell leukaemia (ATL) cells and might be a target of novel therapy for ATL. To develop a novel immunotherapy for ATL, we verified the feasibility of cellular immunotherapy targeting HBZ. We established an HBZ-specific and HLA-A*0201-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clone. Detailed study using this CTL clone clearly showed that HBZ is certainly an immunogenic protein recognizable by human CTLs; however, HBZ-specific CTLs could not lyse ATL cells. Failure of HBZ-specific CTLs to recognize human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-infected cells might be due to a low level of HBZ protein expression in ATL cells and resistance of HTLV-1-infected cells to CTL-mediated cytotoxicity. Although HBZ plays an important role in the proliferation of HTLV-1-infected cells, it may also provide a novel mechanism that allows them to evade immune recognition.

• Authors: Koichiro Suemori, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Toshiki Ochi, Taiji Ogawa, Masao Matsuoka, Tadashi Matsumoto, Jean-Michel Mesnard, Masaki Yasukawa
• Journal: The Journal of general virology (J Gen Virol) Vol. 90 Issue Pt 8 Pg. 1806-1811 (Aug 2009) ISSN: 0022-1317 [Print] England
• PMID: 19423550 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antigens, Viral
• Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors
• HBZ protein, human T-cell leukemia virus type I
• Retroviridae Proteins
• Viral Proteins

Topics

• Antigens, Viral (immunology)
• Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors (immunology)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic
• Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (immunology)
• Humans
• Leukemia, T-Cell (immunology)
• Retroviridae Proteins
• T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic (immunology)
• Viral Proteins (immunology)