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Retrovirus found in Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes is more common among injecting drug users and is likely to be addictive, according to findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
"The human genome is littered with retroviral elements as a result of old retrovirus infections in the germ line of our primate ancestors," Gkikas Magiorkinis, MD, MSc, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, wrote colleagues. "Some of these retroviral invasions have proliferated successfully by continually reintegrating into their host's genome."
Previously, Infectious Diseases News reported on the discovery of hepatitis B virus in remains dating back to the Bronze Age.
According to Magiorkinis and colleagues, endogenous pathogenic retroviruses (ERVs) are not new to the animal kingdom, but have not so far been concretely linked to harmful effects in humans.
"Most people think that these old viruses are harmless. From time to time, people have shown overexpression of HK2 "- HERV-K HML-2, the main focus of the study," in cancer, but it was difficult to distinguish the cause of the effect " said Magiorkinis in a new statement.
Although the proliferation of most human retroviruses (HERV) has stopped for millions of years, HK2 could still spread, the researchers said.
For the study, they analyzed 202 HIV-1 patients from Greece and 184 patients with hepatitis C virus from the United Kingdom. In the HIV-1 seropositive cohort, Magiorkinis and colleagues found an unusual integration of HK2 into RASGRF2 – a gene involved in the dopaminergic activity of the brain – 2.5 times more frequently in patients infected intravenously than in patients infected by other means, 14% vs 6%. In addition, in the hepatitis C cohort, it was identified 3.6 times more frequently in patients infected through chronic drug use, 34% vs. 9.5%.
After additional CRISPR tests to determine the mechanism underlying the HK2 integration of RASGRF2 The researchers suggested that the gene may be capable of dopaminergic manipulation.
"We have clear biological roles for a small number of endogenous human retroviruses," Aris Katzourakis, PhD, professor of evolution and genomics in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, the statement said. "However, there has never been strong evidence to support the role played in human biology by an endogenous, non-fixed retrovirus, that is, not shared by all individuals in the population. Our study shows for the first time that rare variants of HK2 can affect a complex human trait. The reproduction of this finding in the different cohorts of Athens and Glasgow is particularly important. " – by Marley Ghizzone
Disclosure: The authors do not report any relevant financial information.
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