Immunology and Virology Diseases

Oncogenic Viruses

Viruses are only able to propagate by entering a living cell and manipulating the cell’s machinery to create more new viruses. During the viral reproduction process, certain virus’s DNA or RNA affects the host cell’s genes in ways that may cause it to become cancerous. These viruses are known as oncogenic viruses, meaning viruses that maybe cause or give rise to tumours. Indirect viral oncogenic city involves chronic nonspecific inflammation occurring over decades of infection, as is the case for HCV-induced liver cancer. These two mechanisms differ in their biology and epidemiology. Direct tumour viruses must have at least one virus copy in every tumour cell expressing at least one protein or RNA that is causing the cell to become cancerous.

• Epstein - Barr virus (EBV)
• Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
• Hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV)
• Human T-cell lymph tropic virus-1 (HTLV-1)
• Human Herpes virus-8 (HHV-8)