The immune response to oncogenic retroviruses

Abstract

Although the discovery of the first oncogenic retrovirus was made almost 100 years ago, considerable insights into the specific host immunity involved in anti-tumor and anti-viral responses during acute and chronic infection with oncogenic retroviruses have been achieved only in the last few decades. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) is the only known human oncogenic retrovirus, yet several animal retroviruses have provided knowledge of the mechanisms by which host immunity controls retroviral spread and the sequelae, such as tumor induction; as well as viral escape mechanisms, including mutation of virus-specific antigens and virus-induced immunosuppression of B-and T-cell responses. This chapter will cover advances in the understanding of the immune responses to HTLV-1 and its associated adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), after first examining the cell- and antibody-mediated responses to the AKR/Gross, Friend, and the LP-BM5 murine retroviruses and their tumors. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.