Jornal de Histologia Molecular e Fisiologia Médica

An Overview of Cell Transformation by RNA Viruses

Abstract

Javed Khan

Oncogenic virus research has made significant advances to cancer molecular biology. The discovery of viral oncogenes and cellular proto-oncogenes, as well as the elucidation of signal transduction pathways and the identification of tumour suppressor genes, are all significant achievements. The discovery of avian sarcoma and acute leukaemia viruses—RNAcontaining retroviruses—began the history of cancer virology approximately exactly one hundred years ago. With the discovery of DNA viruses that could convert cells in culture and the invention of quantitative tests for transformation by DNA and RNA-containing tumour viruses in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the research of animal cancer viruses intensified.