World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

HUMAN RETROVIRUSES AND MODERN CANCER RESEARCH: A REVIEW

Zainab Hussain⃰, Sikander Ali and Bushra Muneer

ABSTRACT

The retroviridae family (retroviruses) consists of viruses which require an additional step of reverse transcription during their replication cycle. Cancer and related diseases make up one of the most prevalent causes of mortality. Around 20% of total cancer burden is due to chronic infections and around 15% of cancers are related to viral agents with a higher incidence rate in developing countries. Several human cancers and related malignancies are associated with retroviruses including HIV, breast cancer, prostate cancer and others. Chromosomes in human genome have a number of endogenous retroviral genomes that comprise the human genome. The phylogenetic linkage analysis shows a wide range of oncogenic elements linked to human indigenous retroviruses. They comprise around 1-8% of human genome and follow Mendelian patterns of inheritance. Retroviruses are being employed in newly emerging techniques like gene therapy as delivery vectors. The advanced molecular biology tools and sequencing techniques to analyze retroviruses have opened new horizons in tackling the global cancer burden.

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