Articles Archive for September 2012
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by Alex Compton
Retroviruses, notorious for causing immunodeficiency in primates, cats and cows, were first studied by cancer biologists to understand mechanisms of cell transformation and carcinogenesis. In fact, the first retrovirus discovered was an agent responsible for neoplasia in chickens. Tumor-inducing retroviruses were soon revealed in mammalian species as well, effectively bridging the fields of retrovirology and cancer biology for decades to come.
Beginning in 2006, scientists and the public alike were reminded of this relationship when Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Like Retrovirus (XMRV) was implicated in two human diseases with unknown …
