Viruses do not just cause head colds. They can cause life-threatening cancer. They need to be treated in accordance with the danger they pose. We need to change our attitude towards their contagion and prophylaxis and treatment or their inheritance as is the case with endogenous retroviruses. We need to put more energy into finding immunization treatments and strategies and cures and into effective methods of prevention of transfer. The good news is that in 2005, Merck developed an immunization drug, Gardasil, that is 100% effective in prevention of cervical cancers from HPV 16 and 18. The development of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV AIDS shows what can be done in this direction. To prevent their cancers we must learn to manage these viruses.
Epstein-Barr Virus, IARC Vol 70, 1997
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/abstract.pl?SID=436577&ProjectID=72224
http://193.51.164.11/htdocs/monographs/Vol70/70-EBV.htm
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/CarolASThompson/EBV.htm
Hepatitis B Virus, IARC Vol 59, 1994
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/projectlist.pl?SID=28136
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/
Hepatitis C Virus, IARC vol 59, 1994
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/index.htm
HMTV Human mammary tumor virus (an endogenous retrovirus)
http://www.autoimmune.com/HMTVGen.html
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/projectlist.pl?SID=28147
Human Herpes viruses Type #31 and #33 (Probable),
http://www.bu.edu:80/COHIS/std/herpes.htm#cause
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1), IARC Vol 67, 1996
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/list.pl?Search=HIV&Category=3
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2), LAV-2 Cell line, Causes ALL
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/projectlist.pl?SID=28137&ShowCart=R&DisplayType=Abstract&x=12&y=6
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/search.pl?Search=HIV-2
Human Papilloma Viruses Type #16 and #18, IARC Vol 64, 1995
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/list.pl?Search=HPV&Category=2
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=ar-drugs
Human T-Cell Lymphotrophic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1), IARC Vol 67, 1996
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/list.pl?Search=HTLV&Term=67
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/projectlist.pl?SID=28139
JC Polyomaviruses
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/projectlist.pl?SID=28141
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/13/7484
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/CarolASThompson/jcvcolon.htm
Kaposi's Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus=Human herpesvirus 8 are Probable 2A Carcinogenic viruses (KSHV/HHV8)
http://193.51.164.11/cgi/iHound/Chem/iH_Chem_Frames.html
http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/
My prediction->there are others yet undescribed!
Four major additional references will get one into literature on these delayed lethality killer viruses.
http://www.iarc.fr
http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
http://www.academicpress.com/virology
http://journals.asm.org/
Zoonoses commentary; origins; futures
Look for as yet undiscovered cancer links amongst animal-human Zoonoses. The src gene of Raus sarcoma has been found on human genes, fish and other species. The poultry and dairy farmer cancer experience is a red flag for us to examine zoonoses more closely. So is the fact that HTLV which causes lymphoma and leukemia in humans is mutated from STLV, or Simian T-cell lymphotrophic virus. Another example is the SIV mutation into human HIV-1 and HIV-2 leading to cancers in AIDS patients. Still another red flag is that Herpesvirus saimiri (HSV) and Herpesvirus ateles (HVA) of Squirrel and Spider monkeys causes rapid onset of malignant T-cell lymphoma cancer in other New World primate species yet only mild non-life threatening illness in Squirrel monkeys and Spider monkeys. Conversely, our human Herpesviruses can be fatal to Squirrel monkeys. MMTV in mice and very similar HMTV in humans adds support for this evolutionary danger. Mouse leukemia virus (MLV) gene therapy in kids induced leukemia in two of eleven subjects. Catching viruses from other species is apparently potentially very dangerous.
http://www.veterinary-public-health.de/home_e/aufgaben_e/zoonosen_e.htm#Virale Zoonosen:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/sympsium/symp_idx.htm#Contents
http://mommensj.web2010.com/health.htm#VIRUSES
Conclusions
Is cancer contagious? Some are. Are these viruses heritable? Yes, some are. Some jump the species gap. Viral genes are not confined to a species. They travel back and forth and often change while doing so. Most are bad, some are terrible, others possibly not too bad, and its just possible that a few every once in an aeon, are beneficial and confer evolutionary fitness or even go so far as to create a new species. If our human DNA is a measure of our uniqueness, then the trans-species viral content is a measure of our connectedness to other humans and other species . Their existence implies that we alone do not own our genome. It belongs in a sense to a multi-species mutating super-organism and we all carry these hitch-hikers around for a ride for good or ill and we also hitch-hike on their spiral strands. We share
genes with dogs, pigs, mice, other primates, chickens, part dinosaur, part fish, definitely part virus, and the 30S and 50S unit circular RNA in our mitochondria tells us that we are even part bacteria and we are still part of everything sharing 50 genes with Archaea, and as described by the very astute cosmologist, the Late Carl Sagan, we are part supernova stardust. This explains why we can do genetic engineering. In a real sense, all creatures are therefore our kinfolk and the entire universe is our mother and our father. The fact that we all carry DNA or similar RNA or both has already proven our relatedness. Unemployed? Want a job? Our job is to compete to transport genes into the future and to be testing subjects and subject-species for their experimental varieties.
Want to know how viruses replicate and are transmitted? http://www.angelfire.com/mi/nccc/lnotes.html#viruses.
Want to know what retroviruses and oncogenes are? http://www.lander.edu/flux/retrovirus_mobio2000.htm
Countering Depression
This leads me to my most intriquing prediction ever. Viruses must influence some of our most fundamental behaviors because genes contribute strongly to the government of our behavior. You research Hot-Dogs out there should be able to come up with an answer to this one pretty quick. My research hypothesis is that they will make us behave more promiscuously and to hunger for tactile stimulation and the company of other humans and other creatures so that they will be transmitted more readily. This is very scary. I see a Sci-Fi movie here. I want the finders rights, Mr. Spielberg.
© 2002 Jorma Jyrkkanen
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