Les récepteurs d’entrée du HTLV-1 : un ménage à trois

The identification of the cellular receptor used by viruses to enter their target cells is always a challenge and to date entry receptors remain to be identified for a variety of pathogenic human viruses. Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), the unique oncogenic retrovirus in human, was identified in the early 1980 's. The nature of its entry receptor has remained a mystery for over 20 years, until the independent identification of three proteins presenting the expected criteria, the glucose transporter Glut1, Neuropilin 1, a VEGF receptor, and heparan sulfate proteoglycans. In this review, we summarize the data pertaining to HTLV-1 entry molecules and present a new model, in which these three proteins successively intervene during the entry process.