The role of HTLV-1 clonality, proviral structure, and genomic integration site in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

(A)dult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma(ATL) occurs in similar to 5% of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-infected individuals and is conventionally thought to be a monoclonal disease in which a single HTLV-1(+) T-cell clone progressively outcompetes others and undergoes malignant transformation. Here, using a sensitive high-throughput method, we quantified clonality in 197 ATL cases, identified genomic characteristics of the proviral integration sites in malignant and nonmalignant clones, and investigated the proviral features (genomic structure and 5 ' long terminal repeat methylation) that determine its capacity to express the HTLV-1 oncoprotein Tax. Of the dominant, presumed malignant clones, 91% contained a single provirus. The genomic characteristics of the integration sites in the ATL clones resembled those of the frequent low-abundance clones (present in both ATL cases and carriers) and not those of the intermediate-abundance clones observed in 24% of ATL cases, suggesting that oligoclonal proliferation per se does not cause malignant transformation. Gene ontology analysis revealed an association in 6% of cases between ATL and integration near host genes in 3 functional categories, including genes previously implicated in hematologic malignancies. In all cases of HTLV-1 infection, regardless of ATL, there was evidence of preferential survival of the provirus in vivo in acrocentric chromosomes (13, 14, 15, 21, and 22).