title: [Basic understanding of retroviruses].
abstract: Retroviruses contain a reverse transcriptase in the virion that converts viral genomic RNA to proviral DNA. Retroviruses are divided into three groups; oncovirus, lentivirus, and spumavirus. The oncovirus group contains HTLV-1, which causes adult T-cell leukemia, encephalomyeloneuropathy, arthritis, and alveolo-bronchopathy. The lentivirus groups contains HIV, which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and dementia. The genomic structures and functions of HTLV-1 and HIV have been demonstrated to explain the pathogenesis of these retroviruses.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hatanaka
mesh_terms: D006678:HIV; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1; D011533:Proviruses; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology