Virus variation, escape from cytotoxic T lymphocytes and human retroviral persistence.
Viruses use a variety of mechanisms to escape recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). The available evidence suggests that the main mechanisms of CTL escape caused by viral sequence variation are loss of epitope binding to MHC molecules or altered recognition by T cell receptors. These types of mutations occur in both human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and human T cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infections. In HIV-1, CTL escape is one factor that may cause progression of disease. In HTLV-1, however, CTL escape mutants never predominate in the viral population.
Department of Immunology, Imperial College School of Medicine, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK.
K G
KG
Gould
C R
CR
Bangham
D014644:Genetic Variation; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
D012367:RNA, Viral