title: The diversity of retroviral diseases of the immune system.
abstract: Retroviruses have been implicated as causative agents for a range of diseases including neoplasia, autoimmunity and immunosuppression. No two retroviruses carry the same complement of genes and for this reason it is not surprising that they induce a variety of different disease states. One common element in retroviral evolution has been the need to avoid immune recognition in order to persist within the host. A comparative approach, looking at various persistent retroviruses, has been used to pin-point the types of genetic adaptations adopted by retroviruses to remain hidden, often within the T cell compartment. Most of these retroviruses are T-cell-tropic and the diseases which they induce usually reflect the effect of the retrovirus on normal lymphocyte function.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Sciences, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: O'Neill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002415:Cats; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D008325:Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D014779:Virus Replication