Retroviruses

Edited by:
  • John M. Coffin,
  • Stephen H. Hughes &
  • Harold E. Varmus
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: 1998. Pp.843. $180

Teaching AIDS on an immunology course recently, I posed the question: how did retroviruses acquire their name? One wit volunteered the answer: “Because they were discovered back in the 1970s.” In the HIV era, retroviruses are so pervasive that their replication by reverse transcription appears commonplace, with no sense of the revolution caused by the discovery of reverse transcriptase in 1970. Indeed, it often comes as a surprise to students who have not yet studied virology to learn that other RNA viruses, such as the agents causing influenza or poliomyelitis, do not make DNA. It is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerases that are now regarded as curiosities.

Yet where can one go to bone up on retroviruses? For several years there has been no general text that encompasses up-to-date knowledge of retroviruses. So this is the book we have been waiting for, and no-one should be disappointed.

As the editors state in the preface to Retroviruses, the forerunner was published 15 years ago. But this is not a new edition; rather it is a new testament, written entirely anew and with a different, appropriately modern, structure. The old testament had its genesis 25 years ago when Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory published a textbook called The Molecular Biology of Tumor Viruses. It was superseded in 1980 and 1982 by two separately edited texts on DNA Tumor Viruses and RNA Tumor Viruses which became the bibles of molecular virologists working in or entering the field. The titles betray the focus of effort in those days, for HIV made its debut only in the 1985 paperback edition of RNA Tumor Viruses which had to be expanded to a second volume to include the new discoveries as well as a compendium of retrovirus genome maps. New maps and sequence data are provided in the present book by two excellent appendices with references to Web sites for international databanks.

Retroviruses begins fittingly with a homage to Howard M. Temin by David Baltimore. There is a scholarly, historical introductory chapter by Peter K. Vogt illustrating the several paradigm shifts that occurred with retroviruses, and citing Thomas Kuhn to justify the volume: “Textbooks are produced in the aftermath of scientific revolutions”. This is followed by six synoptic gospels on retroviral organization and replication. A short ‘intermezzo’ or epistle by the editors on the interactions of retroviruses and their hosts introduces further apostolic chapters on endogenous genomes, vectors, pathogenesis, the apocalypse of HIV, and the revelations of immunological and therapeutic approaches to the control of retroviral infections. The only aspects that are somewhat superficially covered are transmission (other than HIV) and natural immune responses. Although frequently mentioned, the natural history of retroviruses receives less coherent treatment than molecular virology.

Retroviruses will be read in most detail by scientists, although it is a useful volume for physicians and veterinarians, too. This is a serious reference book to be cherished by specialist and novice alike. Its weighty volume (2.5 kilograms) is addressed to the research community rather than to the undergraduate. As the editors state, the chapters are not intended to be read and digested strictly in order, but according to the interest of the reader. Each starts with a concise summary and is handsomely illustrated. Chapters are individually referenced and cover retroviruses in a comparative manner, drawing on common features and principles as well as on the fascinating variety of retroviral pathogenesis. The index, with a few exceptions (such as HIV neuropathogenesis), provides a genuinely useful homing device to the immense breadth and depth of the subject.

The retrovirologist will continually dip into the volume for reference. Graduate students will now have an easier time writing their theses. The nonviral molecular and cell biologist will find many nuggets of useful information and exposition. My copy disappeared from my office the day it arrived. Better order two copies at once.