Oncoviruses
Cellular and Molecular Virology
Covering decades’ worth of medical research, Oncoviruses is a thorough scientific review.
Abubakar Yaro’s Oncoviruses is comprehensive in reviewing past medical studies of a subset of cancer-causing viruses.
Oncoviruses, Yaro says, include the human papillomavirus (HPV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV), which can be lethal because of how they integrate into host cells, and because of subsequent immunosuppression. To explain them further, Yaro compiles data from past studies, remarking on the distinct attributes of oncoviruses, their treatments, and their transmission. His book shares interesting information such as the fact that oncoviruses interfere with cell cycle apoptosis, or programmed death, which allows cancerous cells to proliferate and form into a tumor. Viruses related to oncoviruses, proteins, receptors, and immunological responses are also discussed.
This holistic review of studies on oncoviruses and the body’s secondary responses to their presences receals that oncoviruses can be either permissive (where all of the viral DNA is copied within a human cell) or non-permissive (where parts of DNA are integrated into a human cell’s DNA, causing the cell to burst). Such scientific details prove vital to achieving general understanding about oncoviruses’ distinguishing characteristics and the development of effective treatment methods for them.
In this aggregate analysis of existing oncovirus research, the chapters are organized to focus on specific viruses, their associated proteins, and immunological responses to them, with references listed at the end of each chapter. While the research is expansive, the book’s most important terms are too scattered throughout its explanations. Further, the amount of information that the book introduces with each topic and case study is overwhelming. For example, one study, which examined the combination of two treatments (SAHA and bortezomib), is shared alongside the many other applicable treatment methods and strategies, which are all discussed in depth; however, many of the treatments are referenced without introductory definitions. At such points, the text becomes less generally accessible; portions of it necessitate extensive preexisting biomedical knowledge.
While most of the book’s graphs and tables are sufficiently detailed, resulting in clear visualizations of subjects like protein and cell mechanisms, some are low resolution and less legible. And the nonstandardized citations obscure where some information was drawn from. Nonetheless, the book’s discussions of oncoviruses’ virulence when combined with other diseases is adept; HIV’s ability to lower immune system responses is emphasized throughout. Yaro’s proposals for future oncovirus treatments, which are based on the compiled research, make the text on the whole worthwhile.
Covering decades’ worth of medical research, Oncoviruses is a thorough scientific review.
Reviewed by
Aleena Ortiz
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
