Is Virology Dead?

DiMaio, Daniel

Viruses also have esthetic appeal. Who is not moved by beautiful viral capsids? Fly low over them, and you will see an endless landscape of ridges, valleys, canyons, pockets, grooves, protrusions, and knobs. Who is not thrilled by the miniature cranes and derricks of viral fusion proteins, swinging into position? And who is not delighted by the marvelous ways that viruses repurpose cellular molecules to support virus replication? That is not a tRNA, it is a primer for reverse transcription (27)! But there is a dark side. Viruses can cause serious disease. From smallpox to polio to pandemic influenza to AIDS, many of humanity's greatest scourges have been viral diseases. Some of these viruses have tormented us for millennia; others are mere arrivistes. How do these viruses replicate, how do they affect cellular biochemistry, and how do they cause disease? And what is a virus disease, anyway? Viruses cause not only highly contagious diseases with a clear infectious basis, but they can also trigger some chronic diseases with no obvious infectious component. At least 15% of all cancer deaths worldwide are associated with virus infection occurring years and even decades earlier (28) . Such a link is cause for celebration, because we have strategies to combat viral infections: surveillance, screening, vaccination, and antiviral agents. The development and deployment of vaccines that inhibit infection by hepatitis B virus and by certain strains of human papillomavirus, both highly prevalent human carcinogens, are among the most important public health advances of the past 30 years. Viruses are also suspected of playing a role in autoimmune diseases, chronic neurologic diseases, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Obesity has also been associated with viral infection. Mice infected with human adenovirus type 36 become obese, and there is an epidemiological link between infection with this virus and obesity in humans (29) . And if viruses can trigger a pathogenic process and then depart without leaving a physical trace of the viral genome in the host, a so-called hit-and-run mechanism, then the roster of viral diseases may expand tremendously.