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What is a Retrovirus?

Retroviruses are a family of viruses capable of transforming two of their RNAs into DNA and introducing them into the cell forever. Unlike other types of viruses that convert DNA into RNA. This action in microbiology is called reverse transcriptase, which gave rise to the name of this family of retroviruses from the word “retro” - “back.” Of the known viruses, only retroviruses have a diploid genome, that is, consisting of two RNA molecules.

In addition to the unique ability of reverse transcriptase, retroviruses are able to easily switch from one species to another and are considered a zoonotic infection, since many of their species are found in animal carriers. The same property of reverse transcriptase gives rise to the ability of retroviruses to constantly mutate, since the process of reverse transcriptase is not controlled and can proceed with errors. This fact complicates the search and development of vaccines against the retrovirus.

A distinctive feature of retroviruses is considered to be their quiet behavior. When a retrovirus invades a cell and changes its DNA for its own, obtained from RNA, it may not do any harm to the body for a long time. The processes of virus replication take place, the cell generates similar viruses, they infect other cells, which also give rise to retroviruses. So retroviruses can cause diseases, the symptoms of which become noticeable only after a long time.

The retroviruses that cause AIDS disease are also quietly implanted into the cellular structure and for many years they do not particularly bother a person. For example, monkeys that became the source of retroviral HIV infection did not show symptoms of AIDS at all throughout their life (although it is worth considering the fact that their life span is short).

For the first time, the results of the introduction of retroviruses into the cell in the form of a developed disease (AIDS) were revealed in humans. When conducting experiments on mice, the ability of retroviruses to cause a change in a cell to an oncocell, that is, to cause cancer, was previously revealed.