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Immunology => Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) => Retrovirus
Retrovirus
Retrovirus, any of a family of viruses, Retroviridae, characterized by a unique mode of replication within the cells of their hosts. Like some other viral groups, retroviruses contain a core of the nucleic acid RNA instead of the usual DNA .Unlike other RNA viruses, retroviruses replicate as DNA rather than RNA genomes inside their hosts by means of an enzyme they carry, called reverse transcriptase. The retroviruses cause various infections in birds and mammals, including humans. Some genera also cause cancers in animals, such as feline leukemia and bovine sarcoma, and research in the mid-1980s indicated that some retroviruses may cause cancers in humans .The disease known as AIDS (see acquired immune deficiency syndrome) has been linked with a retrovirus as well.
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