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AIDS and the new viruses
88
The penultimate chapter deals with the unenviable task of pulling together the intensive studies of the past few years on picornavirus antigenicity. The application of monoclonal antibody techniques and of peptide studies yielded sometimes conflicting information that was only adequately resolved on the publication of three dimensional crystal structures for at least one member of each of the four picornavirus genera. Although, as the author points out, great strides have been made, there remains a number of holes in our knowledge such as the antigenic structure of hepatitis A viruses. Maybe antigen chimaeras will provide a novel avenue for future research. The book ends with a good overview of poliovirus genetics which amply summarises both the contribution of classical methods and the enormous activity and further potential in the application of modern recombinant DNA techniques to the study of the functions of picornavirus genomes. The concluding remarks of this chapter remind the reader of the tremendous potential for manipulation and redesign of viruses for which we have numerous complete primary sequences, cDNA clones from which virus can easily be recovered and three dimensional crystal structures which provide a guide to detailed engineering of well characterised proteins. Based on these writings it is clear that picornavirus research is set to continue in a good state of health well into the 1990s. My main criticism of the book is that it perhaps does not do the field justice. It is a bit thin. Nay, it is quite a lot thin. Picornavirus research also encompasses a large amount of epidemiology, pathogenesis and vaccinology and there are certain molecular aspects such as crystal structure and virus assembly, which are inadequately covered. The book could have been two or three times as thick and would then have approached the status of a definitive picornavirus text. As it stands it is not the whole story. Jeffrey Almond
VRR 00699
AIDS and the New Viruses. A.G. Dalgleish and R.A. Weiss. Academic Press and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; London, San Diego, New York, Boston, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto. ISBN O-1220-0740-9; US$68. This book, with 19 contributors, fills a gap in the voluminous literature published on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other viruses. Of the 212 pages in the book, 124 pages deal with the epidemiology, molecular biology, immunology, antiretroviral therapy, and pathogenesis of HIV, and “the quest for an HIV vaccine.” The remainder of the book discusses human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-l), human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-21, human herpes virus 6 (HHV-61, and newer hepatitis agents.
89
For readers who desire a comprehensive background and technical coverage of these subjects, this book can be highly recommended, recognizing that new details and understanding may have been added since the book’s publication. However, for specialists in each of these fields, there may be little of interest here, because there are very few references to literature published after early 1990. In fact, the chapter on antiretroviral therapies appears to have been written before the end of 1989. The chapter by Haseltine on “Molecular Biology of HIV-l”, and the chapter by Ada on “Strategies in the Quest for an HIV Vaccine”, are particularly well-written and informative. Minor caveats include the cursory description of what the author calls “silent infections” (page 111, i.e., individuals who lack antibodies to HIV but in whom viral DNA or live virus can be detected. Aside from the “window” period of very early HIV infection before an immune response has occurred (generally 6-12 weeks), there has been little confirmation of the earlier reports of persistent silent infections; indeed, some question if they occur with any frequency, or at all. The subject of cell mediated immune responses to HIV infection and vaccine antigens, and their potential importance in controlling infection, is only briefly described in this book, presumably because little information was available at the time of its writing. However, this is an area of exciting growth and readers should turn elsewhere for information on this potentially important and exciting field of study. For example, on page 85, Ada states “Generally, internal antigens show little, if any, antigenic variation. This means that if a virus showing antigenic drift in surface antigens escapes neutralization by antibody, the T cell response (particularly Tc cells) will in effect be cross-reactive and hence cross-protective”. However, some recent evidence suggests that this may not be true for internal HIV antigens, which do show evidence of antigenic variation. Chapter 7, “The Biology of the Human T-Lymphotropic Viruses Types 1 and 2 (HTLV-1, HTLV-2)“, provides a very comprehensive and interesting review of these retroviruses and what is known of the clinical manifestations following infection, as well as coverage of serology, seroepidemiology and epidemiology. The chapter on human herpes virus-6 is useful, but brief. The final chapter on new hepatitis agents provides a detailed coverage of hepatitis delta virus. The description of non-A, non-B hepatitis viruses, although comprehensive, was written at a time when new tests for hepatitis-C virus began to open the door to a much broader understanding of this field. Nonetheless, the authors provide a very lucid summary of data available at the time of publication. In summary, this book can be highly recommended for scientists and clinicians who desire a comprehensive overview of the viruses described in this book, as of early 1990. As with virtually all multi-authored books, there is variability in writing and some redundancy, but the overall quality of writing is high.
Gary R. Noble
The penultimate chapter deals with the unenviable task of pulling together the intensive studies of the past few years on picornavirus antigenicity. The application of monoclonal antibody techniques and of peptide studies yielded sometimes conflicting information that was only adequately resolved on the publication of three dimensional crystal structures for at least one member of each of the four picornavirus genera. Although, as the author points out, great strides have been made, there remains a number of holes in our knowledge such as the antigenic structure of hepatitis A viruses. Maybe antigen chimaeras will provide a novel avenue for future research. The book ends with a good overview of poliovirus genetics which amply summarises both the contribution of classical methods and the enormous activity and further potential in the application of modern recombinant DNA techniques to the study of the functions of picornavirus genomes. The concluding remarks of this chapter remind the reader of the tremendous potential for manipulation and redesign of viruses for which we have numerous complete primary sequences, cDNA clones from which virus can easily be recovered and three dimensional crystal structures which provide a guide to detailed engineering of well characterised proteins. Based on these writings it is clear that picornavirus research is set to continue in a good state of health well into the 1990s. My main criticism of the book is that it perhaps does not do the field justice. It is a bit thin. Nay, it is quite a lot thin. Picornavirus research also encompasses a large amount of epidemiology, pathogenesis and vaccinology and there are certain molecular aspects such as crystal structure and virus assembly, which are inadequately covered. The book could have been two or three times as thick and would then have approached the status of a definitive picornavirus text. As it stands it is not the whole story. Jeffrey Almond
VRR 00699
AIDS and the New Viruses. A.G. Dalgleish and R.A. Weiss. Academic Press and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; London, San Diego, New York, Boston, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto. ISBN O-1220-0740-9; US$68. This book, with 19 contributors, fills a gap in the voluminous literature published on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other viruses. Of the 212 pages in the book, 124 pages deal with the epidemiology, molecular biology, immunology, antiretroviral therapy, and pathogenesis of HIV, and “the quest for an HIV vaccine.” The remainder of the book discusses human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-l), human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-21, human herpes virus 6 (HHV-61, and newer hepatitis agents.
89
For readers who desire a comprehensive background and technical coverage of these subjects, this book can be highly recommended, recognizing that new details and understanding may have been added since the book’s publication. However, for specialists in each of these fields, there may be little of interest here, because there are very few references to literature published after early 1990. In fact, the chapter on antiretroviral therapies appears to have been written before the end of 1989. The chapter by Haseltine on “Molecular Biology of HIV-l”, and the chapter by Ada on “Strategies in the Quest for an HIV Vaccine”, are particularly well-written and informative. Minor caveats include the cursory description of what the author calls “silent infections” (page 111, i.e., individuals who lack antibodies to HIV but in whom viral DNA or live virus can be detected. Aside from the “window” period of very early HIV infection before an immune response has occurred (generally 6-12 weeks), there has been little confirmation of the earlier reports of persistent silent infections; indeed, some question if they occur with any frequency, or at all. The subject of cell mediated immune responses to HIV infection and vaccine antigens, and their potential importance in controlling infection, is only briefly described in this book, presumably because little information was available at the time of its writing. However, this is an area of exciting growth and readers should turn elsewhere for information on this potentially important and exciting field of study. For example, on page 85, Ada states “Generally, internal antigens show little, if any, antigenic variation. This means that if a virus showing antigenic drift in surface antigens escapes neutralization by antibody, the T cell response (particularly Tc cells) will in effect be cross-reactive and hence cross-protective”. However, some recent evidence suggests that this may not be true for internal HIV antigens, which do show evidence of antigenic variation. Chapter 7, “The Biology of the Human T-Lymphotropic Viruses Types 1 and 2 (HTLV-1, HTLV-2)“, provides a very comprehensive and interesting review of these retroviruses and what is known of the clinical manifestations following infection, as well as coverage of serology, seroepidemiology and epidemiology. The chapter on human herpes virus-6 is useful, but brief. The final chapter on new hepatitis agents provides a detailed coverage of hepatitis delta virus. The description of non-A, non-B hepatitis viruses, although comprehensive, was written at a time when new tests for hepatitis-C virus began to open the door to a much broader understanding of this field. Nonetheless, the authors provide a very lucid summary of data available at the time of publication. In summary, this book can be highly recommended for scientists and clinicians who desire a comprehensive overview of the viruses described in this book, as of early 1990. As with virtually all multi-authored books, there is variability in writing and some redundancy, but the overall quality of writing is high.
Gary R. Noble