Copy Number and Insertional Polymorphism Study of Human Endogenous Retrovirus Herv-K in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

This proposal aims in exploring the role of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) in human genome and its associated mechanisms with human autoimmune diseases, especially in autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis. HERVs have been suggested as potential etiological agents and cofactors in chronic diseases such as cancers, neurological and autoimmunity diseases, particularly in rheumatic diseases. It has been reported that increased expression of HERVs mRNA and proteins in peripheral blood and synovial fluid cells in rheumatoid arthritis patients. However the exactly role of HERVs in rheumatic disease is intriguing and merits further investigation. Endogenous retroviruses have been detected in all vertebrates studies. The human genome contains many types of retrovirus-like elements. HERVs comprise around 8% of genome. They are the results from ancestral viral infection by infectious retroviruses that became incorporated into germ-line DNA. As a result, HERVs can transmit vertically in a Mendelian manner, rather than by the horizontal spread typical of an infectious virus. HERVs are sequences within the genome that closely related to certain members of the Retroviridae. Retroviridae is an important family of exogenous human and animal viruses that includes HIV and human T-lymphotropic Virus (HTLV), causes of the AIDS and adult T-cell leukemia, respectively. Some specific HERVs insertions are transcriptionally active therefore they could express similar exogenous retroviral proteins. These HERVs proteins might have the potential to have physiological and pathological functions and cause diseases. However, no infectious HERV has yet been identified until now. This proposal combines clinical cases with virology and genetics studies, basing on real-time quantitative PCR, to quantify the copy number of HERV-K family and HERV-K10 in rheumatoid arthritis patients and control groups. Meanwhile, to study insertional polymorphisms of HERV-K10 that associate in arthritis. This project will be a preliminary study to elucidate the roles of human endogenous retrovirus in autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis.

Project ID:PC9706-1075
External Project ID:NSC97-2314-B182-001-MY2