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Human Endogenous Retroviruses as Biomedicine Markers

Virologica Sinica volume 36, pages 852–858 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) were formed via ancient integration of exogenous retroviruses into the human genome and are considered to be viral “fossils”. The human genome is embedded with a considerable amount of HERVs, witnessing the long-term evolutionary history of the viruses and the host. Most HERVs have lost coding capability during selection but still function in terms of HERV-mediated regulation of host gene expression. In this review, we summarize the roles of HERV activation in response to viral infections and diseases, and emphasize the potential use of HERVs as biomedicine markers in the early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer, which provides a new perspective for the clinical application of HERVs.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2018ZX10301101), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA13010500) and the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program to JC.

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  1. Yuhe Song and Xiang Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Yuhe Song

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Yuhe Song, Xiang Li, Xiaoman Wei & Jie Cui

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiang Li & Xiaoman Wei

  4. CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Xiaoman Wei

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  1. Yuhe Song
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Correspondence to Jie Cui.

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Song, Y., Li, X., Wei, X. et al. Human Endogenous Retroviruses as Biomedicine Markers. Virol. Sin. 36, 852–858 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-021-00387-7

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Keywords

  • Human endogenous retrovirus (HERVs)
  • Biomedicine marker
  • Viral infection
  • Disease
  • Cancer