Endogenous Retroviruses and Human Cancer: Is There Anything to the Rumors?

Bhardwaj, Neeru; Coffin, John M.

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2014.02.013

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…One could argue that the association of HERV expression with certain human cancers or auto‐immune diseases might be a result of the disease phenotype activating the HERV, because host restriction factors that normally suppress the HERV may be less active in tumor cells or in inflammatory conditions . Overall, the link between HERVs and malignancies such as lymphoma , germ‐cell tumors and melanoma appears somewhat stronger than a coincidental association for which the HERV protein or particle is merely a marker of the tumor cell .…”

Section: Detrimental Aspects Of Hervmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human endogenous retroviruses: friend or foe?

Weiss

2016

APMIS

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Weiss RA. Human endogenous retroviruses: friend or foe?. APIMS 2016; 124: 4-10.The integration of proviral DNA into host chromosomal DNA as an obligatory step in the replication cycle of retroviruses is a natural event of genetic recombination between virus and host. When integration occurs in cells of the germ line, it results in mendelian inheritance of viral sequences that we call endogenous retroviruses (ERV) and HERV for humans. HERVs and host often establish a symbiotic relationship, especially in the placenta and in pluripotent embryonic stem cells, but HERVs occasionally have deleterious consequences for the host. This special issue of APMIS features the fascinating relationships between HERV and humans in health and disease.

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Section: Detrimental Aspects Of Hervmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human endogenous retroviruses: friend or foe?

Weiss

2016

APMIS

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“…In fact, the conservative estimate is that 12% of global cancer incidence worldwide is caused by just four viruses (HPV, HBV, HCV, and EBV) [ 7 , 8 ]. Moreover, it is an open question whether endogenous human retroviruses (HERVs) and retrotransposons are also cancer causing agents (recently reviewed in [ 9 ]).…”

Section: Human Oncovirusesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review Viruses in cancer cell plasticity: the role of hepatitis C virus in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hibner¹,

Grégoire²

2015

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Viruses are considered as causative agents of a significant proportion of human cancers. While the very stringent criteria used for their classification probably lead to an underestimation, only six human viruses are currently classified as oncogenic. In this review we give a brief historical account of the discovery of oncogenic viruses and then analyse the mechanisms underlying the infectious causes of cancer. We discuss viral strategies that evolved to ensure virus propagation and spread can alter cellular homeostasis in a way that increases the probability of oncogenic transformation and acquisition of stem cell phenotype. We argue that a useful way of analysing the convergent characteristics of viral infection and cancer is to examine how viruses affect the so-called cancer hallmarks. This view of infectious origin of cancer is illustrated by examples from hepatitis C infection, which is associated with a high proportion of hepatocellular carcinoma.

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“…Although there are known mechanisms by which a HERV can cause disease ; for example, by inducing genome structural variation through recombination [25–29], affecting host gene expression [30], and inappropriate activation of an immune response by viral RNA or proteins [21], it has been difficult to establish an etiological role of a HERV in any disease. HERV-K specifically has been associated with breast and other cancers [3, 31–35], and autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis [36,37], multiple sclerosis [20,38] and systemic lupus erythematosus [8,20,39] without definitive evidence of causality or of the specific loci involved. Recently, a HERV-K envelope protein was shown to recapitulate the clinical and histological lesions characterizing Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis [40,41], providing an important mechanistic advance of a role for a HERV-K protein in a disease.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%