Polyomaviruses and Human Diseases (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 577)

Science never solves apr oblem without creating ten more Geor ge Bernard Shaw How prophetic the above words prove to be when applied to the advances of 20th century medicine. Prior to Banting and Best, chnicians were unaware of the ravages of diabetes, patients simply wasted away and died. Following the purifica­ tion of insulin, clinicians now had to deal with diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neph­ ropathy and all the other complications of long-term diabetes. A little over 50 years ago, the first successful human kidney transplant was performed in Boston. The first 30 years of the experience had successes when compared to the alternative but were a constant struggle to get even 50% of the grafts from deceased donors to survive more than a year. However, the science continued to advance knowledge of the immune response. With this came more and increasingly powerful tools for the clinician. Suddenly, success rates of 80-90% at one year were attainable. With this success came new problems, new complications and clinicians now had to worry about the long-term consequences of their therapy as patients were surviving with functional grafts for extended periods. A particular infectious complication evolved with the application of ever more powerful immunosuppressant drugs. Astute clinicians noted that occasionally cellular rejections seemed to get worse with steroids. Despite their best efforts and the use of powerful drugs, patients lost their grafts to overwhelming interstitial infiltrates not seen before. Polyomaviruses and human diseases / Nasimul Ahsan and Keerti V. Shah Discovery and epidemiology of the human polyomaviruses BK virus (BKV) and JC virus (JCV) / Wendy A. Knowles Phylogenomics and molecular evolution of polyomaviruses / Keith A. Crandall ... [et al.] Virus receptors and tropism / Aarthi Ashok and Walter J. Atwood Serological cross reactivity between polyomavirus capsids / Raphael P. Viscidi and Barbara Clayman Molecular genetics of the BK virus / Christopher L. Cubitt Serological diagnosis of human polyomavirus infection / Annika Lundstig and Joakim Dillner Human polyomavirus JC and BK persistent infection / Kristina Doerries Immunity and autoimmunity induced by polyomaviruses / Ole Petter Rekvig, Signy Bendiksen, and Ugo Moens The pathobiology of polyomavirus virus infection in man / Parmjeet Randhawa, Abhay Vats, and Ron Shapiro Polymoavirus-associated nephropathy in renal transplantation / Hans H. Hirsch ... [et al.] BK virus and immunosuppressive agents / Irfan Agha and Daniel C. Brennan BK virus infection after non-renal transplantation / Martha Pavlakis, Abdolreza Haririan, and David K. Klassen Latent and productive polyomavirus infections of renal allografts / Volker Nickeleit, Harsharan K. Singh, and Michael J. Mihatsch Urine cytology findings of polyomavirus infections / Harsharan K. Singh ... [et al.] Diagnosis and treatment of BK virus-associated transplant nephropathy / Abhay Vats, Parmjeet S. Randhawa, and Ron Shapiro Pharmacotherapeutic options for the management of human polyomaviruses / Julie Roskopf ... [et al.] Leflunomide in solid organ transplantation and polyoma virus infection / Michelle A. Josephson ... [et al.] JC virus can infect human immune and nervous system progenitor cells / Jean Hou, Pankaj Seth, and Eugene O. Major The polyomavirus, JCV, and its involvement in human disease / Kamel Khalili, Jennifer Gordon, and Martyn K. White Transforming activities of JC virus early proteins / Richard J. Frisque, Catherine Hofstetter, and Shiva K. Tyagarajan Polyomavirus in human cancer development / Winston Lee and Erik Langhoff BK virus, JC virus, and simian virus 40 infection in humans and association with human tumors / Giuseppe Barbanti-Brodano ... [et al.] Epidemiologic studies of polyomaviruses and cancer / Dana E.M. Rollison. Explains the means of diagnosis and treatment of polyomavirus, and outlines the history, pathology, symptoms, and treatment of diseases induced by human polyomavirus. This book discusses the virus and explores the information on polyomavirus, transplant related pathobiology, histopathology, diagnosis, management, and pharmacotherapy