RNA Viruses

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About RNA Viruses

With the recognition of the first HIV/AIDS case about 25 years ago, anumber of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of humans andanimals have been reported, such as SARS, bird flu, West Nile virus infection,Ebola virus outbreaks, etc. These diseases have caused the death ofmillions of lives and uncounted economic loss. Interestingly, these infectiousdiseases are all caused by viral infections and in particular, by RNAviruses. This is probably due to, at least in part, the high mutation rate ofRNA viruses, which is attributed to the lack of proofreading activity ofviral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Thus, in the recent years,research focusing on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of RNAviruses have been very active and made tremendous advances. In thisbook, we have organized 27 chapters written by highly respective virologistsin the field to review the molecular mechanisms of host-virus interactions,particularly on the host gene responses to RNA viral infections.This book is the first volume ever to focus on such a topic in human andanimal RNA viruses. It includes chapters on analyses of host differentialgene expressional profiles using cutting edge technologies, host innateand adapted immune responses to viral infections, virus-induced signaltransduction pathways related to disease occurrence, and recently discoverednovel mechanism on RNA interference in regulation of host-virusinteractions. These topics cover a number of representatives of almost allmajor human and animal RNA virus groups, which are divided into foursections, including retrovirus, positive single strand (ss)RNA virus, negativessRNA virus and double strand (ds)RNA virus.