Elucidation of disease progression in HTLV-1 carriers and adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma patients

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K16208
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 49020:Human pathology-related
• Research Institution: Kurume University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Kyohei 久留米大学, 医学部, 助教 (60838423)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 成人T細胞性白血病・リンパ腫 / HTLV-1 / Hodgkinリンパ腫 / HBZ / Tax / 免疫不全 / 反応性リンパ節炎

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By using in-situ hybridization of HTLV-1-associated mRNA in FFPE samples of ATLL patients, high expression of tax mRNA was significantly associated with clinicopathological characteristics including anti-tumor immunity and with poor prognosis in our previous study.
Furthermore, we expanded the targets to include ATLL with classic Hodgkin lymphoma-like histological features, ATLL in immunosuppressed/insufficient status, and reactive lymphadenitis in HTLV-1 carriers. We accumulated these cases and performed in-situ analysis of HTLV-1-associated mRNA, immunohistochemistry and PCR. We examined the association with clinicopathological characteristics in these cases. We presented a part of the results at academic meeting. We will finish the analysis shortly and publish the results at academic journal.

Free Research Field

血液病理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

成人T細胞性白血病・リンパ腫(ATLL)はHTLV-1の感染により発症する難治性の末梢性T細胞性リンパ腫である。ATLLは様々な組織像をとりうるため、他の末梢性T細胞性リンパ腫との組織学的鑑別が困難である。本研究により、ATLL症例のFFPE標本におけるHTLV-1関連mRNAの発現をin-situで解析することで、抗腫瘍免疫や予後を含む臨床病理学的特徴との関連を同定しうることが示された。本研究でATLLやHTLV-1キャリアのリンパ節炎における臨床病理組織学的特徴や宿主の免疫状態との関連を詳細に解析することで、ATLLやHTLV-1キャリアの診断や治療の層別化につながることが期待される。