Formation of a virological synapse
Figure 1: HTLV-1 spreads between cells via a specialized cell contact - a 'virological synapse'. This was the first description of a virological synapse (Igakura et al 2003).
Figure 2: Formation of the virological synapse is accompanied by reorientation of the cytoskeleton, which is triggered by engagement of ICAM-1 on the infected cell’s surface and expression of HTLV-1 Tax protein in the cell (Barnard et al 2005 and Nejmeddine et al 2005).
