Yi Joo Mi
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, Inje University, Busan, 47392, South Korea.
Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.
Genes Genomics. 2024 Nov;46(11):1303-1312. doi: 10.1007/s13258-024-01546-2. Epub 2024 Aug 1.
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), integrated into the human genome during primate evolution, constitute approximately 8% of the human genome. Although most HERVs are non-protein-coding owing to mutations, insertions, deletions, and truncations, recent research has revealed their diverse roles in biological processes, including disease pathogenesis.
Although many HERVs remain inactive, they have been implicated in various diseases, particularly cancer, prompting an increased interest in harnessing HERVs for therapeutic purposes. This review explores the recent advancements in our understanding of the biological roles of HERVs, emphasizing their clinical relevance in cancer treatment.
Here, we discuss how the detection of transposable elements (TEs), including HERVs, by the immune system triggers innate immune responses in human cancers.
Additionally, we outline recent progress in elucidating the implications of HERV activation in cancer and how targeting HERVs holds promise for anti-cancer treatments by modulating epigenetic plasticity and disrupting cancer initiation and progression.
人类内源性逆转录病毒（HERVs）在灵长类动物进化过程中整合到人类基因组中，约占人类基因组的8%。尽管由于突变、插入、缺失和截短，大多数HERVs是非蛋白质编码的，但最近的研究揭示了它们在包括疾病发病机制在内的生物过程中的多种作用。
尽管许多HERVs仍处于无活性状态，但它们已被认为与各种疾病有关，尤其是癌症，这促使人们对利用HERVs进行治疗的兴趣增加。本综述探讨了我们对HERVs生物学作用理解的最新进展，强调了它们在癌症治疗中的临床相关性。
在这里，我们讨论免疫系统如何检测包括HERVs在内的转座元件（TEs），从而在人类癌症中触发先天免疫反应。
此外，我们概述了阐明HERV激活在癌症中的影响以及通过调节表观遗传可塑性和破坏癌症起始和进展来靶向HERVs在抗癌治疗方面的前景的最新进展。
