Macrophages and related myeloid cells, including dendritic cells, microglia, Kuppfer cells and Langerhans cells, represent cell populations with an extraordinary capacity to influence health and disease. Their range of functions and plasticity are unsurpassed by other cell types involving phagocytosis and antigen presentation, and are sources of trophic and toxic host molecules including reactive oxygen species, cytokines, chemokines, proteases and prostaglandins. Lentiviruses are unique among retroviruses in their ability to infect and replicate in terminally differentiated cells, particularly macrophages. Lentiviruses and Macrophages addresses the relationship between lentivirus infections and macrophages as target cells, together with their ensuing effects on pathogenesis.
The book covers a wide range of lentiviruses, including the immunosuppression lentiviruses – HIV, feline immunodeficienty virus, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), simian–human chimeric immunodeficiency virus and bovine immunodeficiency virus – as well as non-immune-suppressing lentiviruses, such as the small ruminant lentiviruses (visna-maedi virus and caprine arthritis–encephalitis virus) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), together with chapters devoted to macrophage biology and lentivirus superinfections. Indeed, lentiviruses have a long and colorful legacy in mammalian diseases, with the initial recognition of EIAV infection in horses giving rise to what was termed ‘Swamp fever’; however, given the overwhelming consequences of the HIV/AIDS global epidemic and the increasing popularity of lentiviruses as gene delivery tools, this book contains highly relevant material for scientists working in many different fields related to retroviral infections.
One of the major strengths of this book is the breadth of the topics covered, including all of the relevant lentiviruses together with their structure, replicative properties, putative receptors and corresponding host responses. In particular, the chapter on EIAV provides highly detailed information on both clinical and molecular attributes of the virus. The citations within each chapter are uniformly comprehensive and up-to-date, providing the reader with a sense of what is currently happening in each field, together with seminal past papers. A fine example of this contemporaneous aspect of the book is the chapter on superinfections by Sue Vandewoude and Mary Poss, which not only deals with HIV and SIV superinfections and recombination events, but also draws on the exciting area of the ecology of puma immunosuppression virus superinfection in wild felids. In part, this attractive feature of the book stems from the choice of authors: both leaders as well as astute observers in their respective areas were selected. Chapters by Ronald Montelaro, Wendy Maury, Brian Willet and Paul Gorry represent some of the contemporary experts providing informative and focused chapters; conversely, the chapter on macrophage biology by a non-lentivirologist, Ian Ross, is an outstanding review of the topic and fits well with the rest of the book. In many chapters, the figures are excellent; they are not simply lifted from previous articles but were designed to complement the concepts outlined in the text.
There are, however, areas that could be enhanced within the book. For example, there was little information on the evolution of lentiviruses and their acquisition of accessory genes over time. As discussed throughout the book, individual accessory genes’ functions (and origins) remain inscrutable for many lentiviruses. Moreover, the link between explicit viral properties and pathogenesis arising from infections was unclear in some chapters, probably because these areas remain ill-defined for several lentiviruses. In some cases, specific chapters focus on the authors’ prime interests such as virus–receptor interactions, with little attention paid to a larger literature devoted to signaling pathways leading to diseases. The impact of lentiviral infections on individual macrophage-related populations, such as microglial or dendritic cells, might warrant greater attention because of their immediate clinical significance and the capacity of all lentiviruses to infect microglia, causing encephalitis, and the vital role of dendritic cells in antigen presentation. Albeit a small oversight, the intriguing literature outlining a putative lagomorph endogenous lentivirus was not addressed within this edition of the book. One major area deserving greater consideration is the application of lentiviruses to gene delivery. The development of non-pathogenic and high-efficiency lentiviral vectors has moved this field substantially over the past decade to include HIV, feline immunodeficiency virus and SIV elements, and merits further attention in a subsequent edition because of their ability to infect macrophages and related cell types. Similarly, the impact of coinfections, such as cytomegalovirus, which uses myeloid cells as a reservoir, is a topic for a future edition.
In summary, this is an excellent book tackling key issues in the field of lentiviruses and their infection of macrophages. Certainly, the topics within the book exceed the principal objective as outlined at the outset to provide readers with comprehensive and current information regarding this field. In fact, the book is highly readable and will appeal to investigators and trainees working in a wide spectrum of fields including virology, viral pathogenesis, vaccinology/immunology, gene therapy, both human and veterinary infectious diseases and epidemiology.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.