Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are retroviruses that infected human genome millions of years ago and have persisted throughout human evolution. About 8% of our genome is composed of HERVs, most of which are nonfunctional because of epigenetic control or deactivating mutations. However, a corr...
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China Anti-Cancer Association
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doaj-ac987d92242e4a5baba71b042f46f8412020-11-25T00:16:19ZengChina Anti-Cancer AssociationCancer Biology & Medicine2095-39412095-39412016-12-0113448348810.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2016.00802016000080Human endogenous retroviruses and cancerMaría Gonzalez-Cao0Paola Iduma1Niki Karachaliou2Mariacarmela Santarpia3Julià Blanco4Rafael Rosell5Translational Cancer Research Unit, Instituto Oncológico Dr Rosell, Quirón Dexeus University Hospital, Barcelona 08028, Spain;AIDS Research Institute, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08028, Spain;Translational Cancer Research Unit, Instituto Oncológico Dr Rosell, Quirón Dexeus University Hospital, Barcelona 08028, Spain;Medical Oncology Unit, Human Pathology Department, University of Messina, Messina, 98122, Italy;AIDS Research Institute, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08028, Spain;Translational Cancer Research Unit, Instituto Oncológico Dr Rosell, Quirón Dexeus University Hospital, Barcelona 08028, Spain;Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are retroviruses that infected human genome millions of years ago and have persisted throughout human evolution. About 8% of our genome is composed of HERVs, most of which are nonfunctional because of epigenetic control or deactivating mutations. However, a correlation between HERVs and human cancer has been described and many tumors, such as melanoma, breast cancer, germ cell tumors, renal cancer or ovarian cancer, express HERV proteins, mainly HERV-K (HML6) and HERV-K (HML2). Although the causative role of HERVs in cancer is controversial, data from animal models demonstrated that endogenous retroviruses are potentially oncogenic. HERV protein expression in human cells generates an immune response by activating innate and adaptive immunities. Some HERV-derived peptides have antigenic properties. For example, HERV-K (HML-6) encodes the HER-K MEL peptide recognized by CD8+ lymphocytes. In addition, HERVs are two-edged immunomodulators. HERVs show immunosuppressive activity. The presence of genomic retroviral elements in host-cell cytosol may activate an interferon type I response. Therefore, targeting HERVs through cellular vaccines or immunomodulatory drugs combined with checkpoint inhibitors is attracting interest because they could be active in human tumors.http://www.cancerbiomed.org/index.php/cocr/article/view/995HERVscancerinterferonimmunotherapy |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
María Gonzalez-Cao Paola Iduma Niki Karachaliou Mariacarmela Santarpia Julià Blanco Rafael Rosell |
spellingShingle |
María Gonzalez-Cao Paola Iduma Niki Karachaliou Mariacarmela Santarpia Julià Blanco Rafael Rosell Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer Cancer Biology & Medicine HERVs cancer interferon immunotherapy |
author_facet |
María Gonzalez-Cao Paola Iduma Niki Karachaliou Mariacarmela Santarpia Julià Blanco Rafael Rosell |
author_sort |
María Gonzalez-Cao |
title |
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
title_short |
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
title_full |
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
title_fullStr |
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
title_full_unstemmed |
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
title_sort |
human endogenous retroviruses and cancer |
publisher |
China Anti-Cancer Association |
series |
Cancer Biology & Medicine |
issn |
2095-3941 2095-3941 |
publishDate |
2016-12-01 |
description |
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are retroviruses that infected human genome millions of years ago and have persisted throughout human evolution. About 8% of our genome is composed of HERVs, most of which are nonfunctional because of epigenetic control or deactivating mutations. However, a correlation between HERVs and human cancer has been described and many tumors, such as melanoma, breast cancer, germ cell tumors, renal cancer or ovarian cancer, express HERV proteins, mainly HERV-K (HML6) and HERV-K (HML2). Although the causative role of HERVs in cancer is controversial, data from animal models demonstrated that endogenous retroviruses are potentially oncogenic. HERV protein expression in human cells generates an immune response by activating innate and adaptive immunities. Some HERV-derived peptides have antigenic properties. For example, HERV-K (HML-6) encodes the HER-K MEL peptide recognized by CD8+ lymphocytes. In addition, HERVs are two-edged immunomodulators. HERVs show immunosuppressive activity. The presence of genomic retroviral elements in host-cell cytosol may activate an interferon type I response. Therefore, targeting HERVs through cellular vaccines or immunomodulatory drugs combined with checkpoint inhibitors is attracting interest because they could be active in human tumors. |
topic |
HERVs cancer interferon immunotherapy |
url |
http://www.cancerbiomed.org/index.php/cocr/article/view/995 |
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