Human T Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 and Eye Diseases.

Human T cell leukemia virus type 1, also known as human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), is a retrovirus that encodes a reverse transcriptase, which translates viral RNA into a DNA provirus that is integrated into the host genome. The virus was found to be a causative agent of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) in the early 1980s, and was also found to cause the neurological disorder tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP)/HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM) and the inflammatory disorder HTLV-1 uveitis in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, respectively. This article reviews eye diseases caused by or related to HTLV-1: HTLV-1 uveitis, ocular and systemic complications of HTLV-1, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, interstitial keratitis, and ATL.