they made a movie about retroviruses, the main character would resemble
the shape-shifting cyborg in Terminator 2 - the one that could morph
into any character. Retroviruses are like that in the human body.
They sneak into our blood stream, hide inside our immune system
undetected and then wait until it's time to strike.
a virus point of view, it's evolution at its finest, says Jose´
Torres, an associate professor of medical microbiology and immunology
in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the UC Davis
School of Medicine.
body can't identify retroviruses as foreign, because they integrate
themselves into the host's DNA," he says, almost admiringly.
"Every organism wants to replicate; viruses can do so without
interference from the immune system."
humans, however, it's problematic. Viruses cause everything from
AIDS to herpes zoster the sniffles to certain cancers.
complex structure makes them rewarding research subjects. Torres
has his sights set on T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1), a retrovirus
that causes T-cell leukemia, a rare and difficult-to-treat cancer
of the blood cells. With a grant from the American Cancer Society,
he aims to develop a vaccine for the virus within three years.
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