Human T cell lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATL), an aggressive malignancy of mature activated T cells. Although many therapeutic strategies are available, none are effective and most patients experience recurrence of the disease. Over the past decade, many drugs have been discovered that showed promising therapeutic potential against ATL but which remain in the preclinical testing phase. Mechanistically, these drugs either induce apoptosis or regulate cellular proliferation in ATL cells. Here, we provide a summary of these promising drugs that target ATL, with a focus on their mechanism of anticancer activity, to offer insights into the use of multiple drugs with different targets for enhancing ATL eradication.

人类 T 细胞嗜淋巴细胞病毒 1 (HTLV-1) 是成人 T 细胞白血病 (ATL) 的病原体，ATL 是成熟活化 T 细胞的侵袭性恶性肿瘤。尽管有许多治疗策略可用，但没有一种是有效的，并且大多数患者会出现疾病复发。在过去的十年中，已经发现了许多对 ATL 显示出有前景的治疗潜力的药物，但这些药物仍处于临床前测试阶段。从机制上讲，这些药物在 ATL 细胞中诱导细胞凋亡或调节细胞增殖。在这里，我们总结了这些靶向 ATL 的有前途的药物，重点是它们的抗癌活性机制，以提供对使用具有不同靶点的多种药物来增强 ATL 根除的见解。