ArticleCancer research2008
Human endogenous retrovirus K triggers an antigen-specific immune response in breast cancer patients.
Article in Cancer research, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 135 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
135 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 198 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Expression and Immunogenicity of Human Endogenous Retroviral Proteins in Cancer and Discussion of Therapeutic Approaches.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Close to the Bedside: A Systematic Review of Endogenous Retroviruses and Their Impact in Oncology.The Journal of surgical research · 2019Pooled it
- Beyond oncogenesis: the unexplored benefits of viruses in cancer immunity.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- Crystal structure of HERV-K envelope glycoprotein surface subunit.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- Targeting the HERV-K102 envelope elicits pyroptosis and represents a novel therapeutic strategy for acute myeloid leukemia.Blood research · 2026Article
- An expression signature of 19 human endogenous retroviruses identifies immunogenic luminal breast cancers likely to respond to immunotherapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- The expression, regulation, and function of human endogenous retroviruses in genitourinary cancers.Cell death discovery · 2025Review
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses and Diseases.MedComm · 2025Review
- HERV-K Envelope Induce a Humoral Response in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Epigenetic Regulation of Immune Responses in Endocrine-Related Cancers and Its Role in Immunotherapy.Cancers · 2025Review
- Type I interferons increase expression of endogenous retrovirus K102 and envelope protein in myeloid cells from patients with autoimmune disease.Mobile DNA · 2025Article
- Review
- The Role of Human Endogenous Retroviruses in the Initiation and Progression of Melanoma.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Human endogenous retrovirus-K envelope protein is aberrantly expressed in serous ovarian cancer and promotes chemosensitivity via NF-κB/P-glycoprotein pathway inhibition.Journal of ovarian research · 2025Article
- Combination Therapy Approaches to Enhance the Efficacy of ERV-Targeting Vaccines in Cancer.Cancer immunology research · 2025Review
- Combination of a therapeutic cancer vaccine targeting the endogenous retroviral envelope protein ERVMER34-1 with immune-oncology agents facilitates expansion of neoepitope-specific T cells and promotes tumor control.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025Article
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses as Novel Therapeutic Targets in Neurodegenerative Disorders.Vaccines · 2025Review
- HIF regulates multiple translated endogenous retroviruses: Implications for cancer immunotherapy.Cell · 2025Article
- Aberrant expression of human endogenous retrovirus K9-derived elements is associated with better clinical outcome of acute myelocytic leukemia.Retrovirology · 2025Article
- The role of HERV envelope protein in ovarian cancer.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
75 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that human cancer cells reactivate the expression of latent human endogenous retroviral (HERV) proteins. However, the extent to which cancer patients mount de novo immune responses against expressed HERV elements is unclear. In this study, we determined the extent of HERV-K env expression in human breast cancer (BC) and whether both humoral and cell-mediated immunity against HERV-K can be found in BC patients. We found HERV-K env protein expression in 88% of BC (n = 119) but not in normal breast (n = 76) tissues. ELISA screening assays detected significant titers of anti-HERV-K env IgG in a large proportion of BC patients. T-cell responses against HERV-K were also detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from BC patients stimulated with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with HERV-K env SU antigens. These responses included induction of T-cell proliferation (P = 0.0043), IFN-gamma production measured by enzyme-linked immunospot (P < 0.0001), and multiplex cytokine secretion (P = 0.0033). Multiplex cytokine analysis found a T-helper 1 cytokine response, including interleukin (IL)-2 (P = 0.0109), IL-6 (P = 0.0396), IL-8 (P = 0.0169), and IP-10 (P = 0.0045) secretion during in vitro stimulation of BC PBMC with HERV-K antigen. We also found HERV-K-specific CTLs that were capable of lysing target cells expressing HERV-K env protein in BC patients but not in normal female controls without cancer. These findings suggest that retroviral gene products are capable of acting as tumor-associated antigens activating both T-cell and B-cell responses in BC patients.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.