NF-kappaB in pathogenesis and treatment of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

Human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type 1 (HTLV-1) induces aberrant nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation. Although Tax is thought to play major roles in NF-kappaB activation, cells expressing Tax become a target of cytotoxic T cells. Accordingly, HTLV-1-infected cells lose Tax expression and acquire Tax-independent NF-kappaB activation. Blocking NF-kappaB not only induces apoptosis in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) cells but also reduces the number of HTLV-1-infected cells in virus carriers. Therefore, because constitutively activated NF-kappaB appears to be the common biological basis shared between HTLV-1-infected untransformed cells and ATL cells, blocking NF-kappaB might be a potential strategy for treating and preventing ATL.