T cells are critical to control acute infection of a host with retroviruses but they are usually unable to prevent the development of chronic infections. This review summarizes studies from the Friend virus mouse model that reveal some of the mechanisms by which T cells control chronic retroviral infection, and also reveal why these responses ultimately fail to fully eradicate infection. Also s...

Several human retroviruses have been discovered in the past decade, the majority of which have been implicated as etiological agents of severe disease entities. Thus, there is a clear need for accurate identification of human retroviruses in the laboratory. In this review, the classification and general properties of human retroviruses are outlined. Methods for detecting the presence of antibod...

HIV belongs to a family of viruses known as retroviruses. The ability of retroviruses to synthesize DNA using their RNA genome as a template distinguishes them from other viruses. The synthesized DNA can then integrate itself into the genome of an infected cell, becoming what is known as a provirus. Jan Svoboda, a cell and molecular biologist at the Czech Academy of Sciences, who was elected to...