Tumor Viruses and p53

Abstract

Viruses are potent oncogenic agents and are considered to link to approximately one-fifth of all human malignancies. The study of tumor viruses has provided fundamental bases of how normal cells become cancer cells. A number of virus-encoded oncogenes have been identified and their functions were characterized. One of the striking functional similarities of such virus oncogenes, especially the ones encoded by DNA tumor viruses, is that they bind to and inactivate tumor suppressor genes, such as p53 and pRb . In this chapter, I am going to summarize the function of virus oncogenes focusing on their interactions with p53.