text: Transactivation can be triggered either by endogenous cellular or viral proteins, also called transactivators.  These protein factors act in trans (i.e., intermolecularly). HIV and HTLV are just two of the many viruses that encode transactivators to enhance viral gene expression. These transactivators can also be linked to cancer if they start interacting with, and increasing expression of, a cellular proto-oncogene. HTLV, for instance, has been associated with causing leukemia primarily through this process. Its transactivator, Tax, can interact with p40, inducing overexpression of interleukin 2, interleukin receptors, GM-CSF and the transcription factor c-Fos. HTLV infects T-cells and via the increased expression of these stimulatory cytokines and transcription factors, leads to uncontrolled proliferation of T-cells and hence lymphoma.