Molecular And Cell Biology Of Opportunistic Infections In Aids

Human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS have received much attention in the last decade. As the major cause of death in young adults, this concern is merited. AIDS has also ushered onto the clinical agenda a number of unusual and interesting pathogens. These have had considerably less attention than the virus itself, but are arguably as important. This book attempts to put into one volume a state of the art review of the basic biology of these opportunistic organisms. When compiling this book, the perceived difficulty was deciding how to restrict the number of chapters, as there is a large number of opportunistic organisms. It soon became clear, however, that the chapters would select themselves, as the work on many of these organisms was still in its infancy. We can be criticized for including Salmonella, which is not thought to be an opportunistic infection, and excluding Cryptococcus. Our defence is that the former has an interesting relationship with HIV and the latter is one of those organisms for which the basic biology is still in its early stages. The authors are all active researchers in their respective fields and we are grateful that they managed to review their subjects in the short turn-around time required for a book such as this not to be needlessly outdated on publication. We hope that, if nothing else, this book stimulates interest and more research on these agents: perhaps, in future editions, there will be much more to describe on their molecular biology.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a life threating condition known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The first stage of HIV infection is acute infection, following latency and then AIDS, which is the last and critical stage. Patients of AIDS generally have fully dysfunctional immune systems and they acquire a number of severe illnesses known as opportunistic infections (OIs). These illnesses occur in HIV patients with greater severity. Various OIs include tuberculosis (TB), pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, salmonella infection and candidiasis. These infections are caused by various germs, which can be transmitted through contaminated water and food, body fluids and air. AIDS normally takes years to grow following an infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Infected AIDS patients are more likely to acquire cancers, such as Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer, and cancers caused by damaged immune-system known as lymphomas. AIDS patients can benefit from certain medications like antiretroviral medicines. This book contains some path-breaking studies on the molecular and cell biology of opportunistic infections in HIV/AIDS. It will provide comprehensive knowledge to the readers. This book will serve as a reference to a broad spectrum of readers.

This study, based on both clinical and molecular trials, outlines the principles of the molecular biology of HIV and AIDS. Topics such as the origins of the virus, viral interactions with the immune system, antiviral intervention and vaccine prospects are covered.

This comprehensive text, appropriate for an undergraduate course (or part of such a course), provides the nonspecialized student with a scientific overview of AIDS from a biomedical perspective. Assumes only a high school-level modern biology course. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

AIDS: Science and Society, Sixth Edition provides readers with the most current information available on the biology of the virus and the impact it has on society. The Sixth Edition of this best-selling text provides readers with a solid overview of AIDS from both a biomedical and a psychosocial perspective. The authors cover the molecular and cellular aspects of the virus and the immune system's response to it, and examine epidemiology and its role in understanding HIV and AIDS. The use of understandable vocabulary and clear illustrations, along with updated biomedical data and the most current statistics on AIDS available, makes AIDS: Science and Society an essential resource for students, researchers, and general readers.