Modeling the T-cell Dynamics and Pathogenesis of HTLV-I Infection

✍ Scribed by Nikolaos I Stilianakis; Johannes Seydel

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 115 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1522-9602
• DOI: 10.1006/bulm.1999.0117

✦ Synopsis

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infection in humans causes a chronic infection of CD4 + T cells, and is associated with various disease outcomes, among them with the development of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). The T-cell dynamics after HTLV-I infection can be described in a mathematical model with coupled differential equations. The infection process is modeled assuming cell-to-cell infection of CD4 + T cells. The model allows for CD4 + T cell subsets of susceptible, latently infected and actively infected cells as well as for leukemia cells. Latently infected T cells may harbor the virus for several years until they become activated and able to infect susceptible T cells. Uncontrolled proliferation of CD4 + T cells with monoclonal DNA-integration of HTLV-I results in the development of ATL. The model describes basic features that characterize HTLV-I infection; the chronic infection of CD4 + T cells, the increasing number of abnormal cells and the possible progression to ATL.