title: Discovery of ATL: an odyssey in restrospect.
abstract: Forty years have passed since our initial description of peculiar cases of adult-onset leukemia with abnormal cells having multi-convoluted nuclei and T cell properties, frequent in the southern regions of Japan in the early 1970s. Retrospectively, the study of adult T cell leukemia (ATL) and the related virus HTLV-I was a forerunner for all of human retrovirology, in which AIDS and the related retrovirus HIV were identified a few years later in the 1980s. Using the anti-TAC monoclonal antibody generated by the late Takashi Uchiyama during his stay in T. A. Waldmann's laboratory in NIH Bethesda, a cDNA encoding IL-2Rα chain was cloned by our group in Kyoto and by Waldmann's group in Bethesda. Abnormal IL-2Rα chain expression and the IL-2 dependency of ATL cell lines greatly contributed to the study of leukemogenesis of ATL. A new soluble factor named ADF/ATL-derived factor was also detected in ATL cell lines. After years of study, ADF proved to be a first human counterpart of thiol-related oxido-reductase thioredoxin/TRX, which opened the field of redox regulation of cell signaling involved in a variety of diseases. Close interaction among Drs. Kimishige Ishizaka, Kiyoshi Takastuki and T. A. Waldmanns before ATL and HTLV-I study was an essential base for our initiation of ATL research with Takashi Uchiyama and many other colleagues.
authors: Department of Biological Responses, Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. yodoi@skyblue.ocn.ne.jp
authors: Junji
authors: J
authors: Yodoi
authors: Michiyuki
authors: M
authors: Maeda
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D049673:History, 20th Century; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D053645:Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D007564:Japan; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history / Q000821:virology*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D013879:Thioredoxins; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016207:Cytokines; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D053645:Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C491203:TXN protein, human; C055533:adult T cell leukemia-derived factor; D013879:Thioredoxins