Kim H S, Yi J M, Jeon S H
Division of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, South Korea.
AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2001 Jul 1;17(10):987-90. doi: 10.1089/088922201750290113.
Long terminal repeat (LTR) elements of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV-K) may have contributed to disease-associated structural change or genetic variation in the human genome. The LTR elements have been found to be coexpressed with sequences of closely located genes. We identified seven HERV-K LTR elements from mRNA of human cancer cells (HepG2, MCF7, and SiHa), using the RT-PCR approach. Four of them are closely related to the human-specific HERV-K LTR elements with a high degree of sequence homology in a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree. The data suggest that recently proliferated HERV-K LTR elements are expressed actively in various cancer cells. These HERV-K LTR elements deserve further investigation as potential leads in the treatment of human cancer.
人类内源性逆转录病毒（HERV-K）的长末端重复序列（LTR）元件可能导致了人类基因组中与疾病相关的结构变化或基因变异。已发现LTR元件与位置相近的基因序列共表达。我们采用逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）方法，从人类癌细胞（HepG2、MCF7和SiHa）的mRNA中鉴定出7个HERV-K LTR元件。其中4个与人类特异性HERV-K LTR元件密切相关，在邻接法系统发育树中具有高度的序列同源性。数据表明，最近增殖的HERV-K LTR元件在各种癌细胞中均有活跃表达。这些HERV-K LTR元件作为人类癌症治疗的潜在线索值得进一步研究。
