Lecture 13

Question 1

What are the 2 human retroviruses?

Answer 1

delta-retrovirus: human t lymphocyte virus
Lentivirus: HIV

Question 2

What is LTR?

Answer 2

Long terminal repeat is a viral promoter sequence for viral gene expression and contains binding sites for cellular transcription factors.

Question 3

How do transducing retroviruses cause cancer?

Answer 3

src gene

Question 4

What kind of retrovirus is HTLV?

Answer 4

HTLV is a trans-acting oncogenic retrovirus.

Question 5

What does HTLV cause?

Answer 5

adult t cell leukaemia

Question 6

What are the oncogenic proteins for HTLV?

Answer 6

Tax1/ HBV

Question 7

How is HTLV-1 spread?

Answer 7

HTLV-1 can be spread from mother to child, blood or sexual contact.

Question 8

What cells do HTLV-1 infect?

Answer 8

HTLV-1 is an aggressive form of leukaemia of CD4+, CD8 T cells

Question 9

What are the 3 types of ATL?

Answer 9

Smouldering, chronic, Acute

Question 10

Smouldering ATL

Answer 10

5% or more abnormal T cells and skin lesions

Question 11

Chronic ATL

Answer 11

19% or more abnormal T cells, elevated T-cell counts and lymphadenopathy

Question 12

Acute ATL

Answer 12

60% or more abnormal T cells, skin lesions, systemic lymphadenopathy, hypercalcemia, metabolic disorders

Question 13

What is Tax protein?

Answer 13

Tax protein is a powerful transactivator of transcription and can transform animal and human cells.

Question 14

What cells do HBZ infect?

Answer 14

HBZ transforms primary CD4+ T cells.