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Analysis of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression in Multiple Sclerosis Plaques.
P J Bhetariya1, J D Kriesel1, K F Fischer2
1Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Journal of Emerging Diseases and Virology
|September 5, 2017
Summary
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) GAG and ENV gene expression showed slight increases in multiple sclerosis (MS) brain samples. However, these differences were minimal, suggesting HERVs may not be a major driver of MS pathogenesis.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimmunology
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis.
- This study investigates HERV GAG and ENV gene expression in MS brain tissue.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the expression levels of HERV GAG and ENV genes in the brain white matter of MS patients.
- To compare HERV gene expression in MS samples with normal brain controls.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to measure GAG and ENV RNA levels in 33 MS and 9 control brain samples.
- Primers were designed for 28 HERV GAG and 88 ENV gene sequences, grouped by phylogenetic clades.
- Gene expression was normalized to the RPL19 reference gene and analyzed for differences between MS and control groups.
Main Results:
- Expression of specific GAG clades (1A, 3B, 3C) mapping to HERV-E and HERV-K was significantly increased in MS samples.
- Expression of HERV ENV clades (2, 3A, 3B) mapping to RTVL, HERV-E, HERV-K, and HERV-W was also significantly increased in MS.
- However, the fold-change differences in expression between MS and control groups were small, less than 1.5-fold.
Conclusions:
- HERV-E, RTVL, and HERV-K10 family GAG and ENV genes showed significantly increased expression in MS brain samples.
- The observed expression differences between MS and control groups were minor, indicating limited contribution of these HERV regions.
- These findings suggest that HERV GAG and ENV expression does not substantially differ between MS patients and controls in the studied brain samples.
