Cure on horizon for HTLV-1, researchers say, as 31 people already get virus in NT this year

A research breakthrough around a little known virus – which affects Central Australian communities – has the team behind the discovery believing a cure may be on the horizon. Find out more.

(L-R, top to bottom) Professor Marc Pellegrini, Dr James Cooney, Professor Damian Purcell, Dr Marcel Doerflinger and Associate Professor Lloyd Einsiedel. The research team has made a breakthrough in finding a cure for HTLV-1, a disease which affects Central Australia. Picture: Supplied

A little known virus which greatly affects Central Australian communities could have a cure on the way, according to a group of researchers, who say they’ve made a major breakthrough in the fight against it.

In a new study published in the medical journal Cell, a research team believe they’ve laid the groundwork in finding a cure for Human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1).

Around 10 million people worldwide live with HTLV-1, and within Australia, a majority of people with the virus are found in the Red Centre.

Professor Damian Purcell. Picture: Supplied

Co-lead author on the study Damian Purcell, also the head of the molecular virology at the Doherty Institute, called HTLV-1 a “cousin of AIDS” and said Australia had its own strain – subtype c.

While there are Brazilian and Japanese subtypes of HTLV-1, Australia’s was a “serious pathogen” compared to the other strains, while Central Australia was the “one of the world’s hotspots” for people infected with the virus.

The virus attacks the body’s white blood cells, Mr Purcell said, and is spread when an infected person transfers to it an uninfected person.

“It’s taken a long time to really understand how this virus works and how it achieves success in transmission relative to HIV,” Mr Purcell said.

“It also has the capability of causing infected cells to crowd into the lung and causing lung complications, which we do see in infected people in Central Australia.”

The breakthrough comes a researchers were able to use HTLV-1c samples, gathered from Alice Springs hospital, and put them in mice, testing to see if drug therapies are effective against the virus.

Alice Springs Hospital assisted by gathering samples for the team to analyse. Picture: Alex Treacy

“What we found is that if we take those drugs and a particular combination that work against the virus enzymes that they are very effective at preventing transmission and protecting somebody from becoming infected,” he said.

“Though we don’t yet have a vaccine for HTLV one, it actually shows great promise that we can make an HTLV 1 vaccine that will be effective if we understand the kind of antibodies that we needed to stimulate and that kind of immunity.”

But despite “five to six years” of work already completed on a vaccine, Mr Purcell said there is still more work to do be done before one is available to the public.

“I would say within four years we could have something that’s in a bottle ready to roll out,” he said.

HTLV-1 is a virus that infects a type of white blood cell called a T-lymphocyte, or T-cell (pictured). The new study could lead to the first treatments and potential cure for the virus that impacts around 10 million people each year. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The study was a collaboration between the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

An NT Health spokeswoman said the NT Centre for Disease Control has received 31 notifications of HTLV-1 since the beginning of the year.

“Since HTLV-1 became notifiable in the NT in 1995, just over 1,700 notifications have been made to the NT Centre for Disease Control. Annual cases have fluctuated over time, without a clear trend over time,” they said.

“HTLV-1 is transmitted through sexual contact, blood to blood exposure, and uncommonly from mother to child through breastfeeding.

“People can prevent transmission by using condoms, avoiding exposure to blood by not sharing needles, and ensuring all equipment used in cultural rituals is single-use.”