Shaw G M, Hahn B H, Arya S K, Groopman J E, Gallo R C, Wong-Staal F
Science. 1984 Dec 7;226(4679):1165-71. doi: 10.1126/science.6095449.
The human T-cell leukemia (lymphotropic) virus type III (HTLV-III) appears to be central to the causation of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Two full-length integrated proviral DNA forms of HTLV-III have now been cloned and analyzed, and DNA sequences of the virus in cell lines and fresh tissues from patients with AIDS or AIDS-related complex (ARC) have been characterized. The results revealed that (i) HTLV-III is an exogenous human retrovirus, approximately 10 kilobases in length, that lacks nucleic acid sequences derived from normal human DNA; (ii) HTLV-III, unlike HTLV types I and II, shows substantial diversity in its genomic restriction enzyme cleavage pattern; (iii) HTLV-III persists in substantial amounts in cells as unintegrated linear DNA, an uncommon property that has been linked to the cytopathic effects of certain animal retroviruses; and (iv) HTLV-III viral DNA can be detected in low levels in fresh (primary) lymphoid tissue of a minority of patients with AIDS or ARC but appears not to be present in Kaposi's sarcoma tissue. These findings have important implications concerning the biological properties of HTLV-III and the pathophysiology of AIDS and Kaposi's sarcoma.
人类T细胞白血病（嗜淋巴细胞）病毒III型（HTLV-III）似乎是获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）病因的核心。目前已克隆并分析了两种全长整合的前病毒DNA形式的HTLV-III，并且对来自艾滋病患者或艾滋病相关综合征（ARC）患者的细胞系和新鲜组织中的病毒DNA序列进行了表征。结果显示：（i）HTLV-III是一种外源性人类逆转录病毒，长度约为10千碱基，缺乏源自正常人DNA的核酸序列；（ii）与HTLV-I型和II型不同，HTLV-III在其基因组限制性内切酶切割模式上表现出显著的多样性；（iii）HTLV-III以未整合的线性DNA形式大量存在于细胞中，这是一种与某些动物逆转录病毒的细胞病变效应相关的罕见特性；（iv）在少数艾滋病或ARC患者的新鲜（原代）淋巴组织中可检测到低水平的HTLV-III病毒DNA，但在卡波西肉瘤组织中似乎不存在。这些发现对HTLV-III的生物学特性以及艾滋病和卡波西肉瘤的病理生理学具有重要意义。
