ArticleRetrovirology2017
DNA hypomethylation and aberrant expression of the human endogenous retrovirus ERVWE1/syncytin-1 in seminomas.
Article in Retrovirology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Close to the Bedside: A Systematic Review of Endogenous Retroviruses and Their Impact in Oncology.The Journal of surgical research · 2019Pooled it
- Differential Expression and Co-Variation of HERV-Associated Transcripts, IL-17 Cytokines, and NFκB in Paired Colorectal Cancer Tissues.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Oncogenic role of ERV with therapeutic potential.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- A Brief Introduction into the Biological Phenomenon of Cell-Cell Fusion.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Revisiting Clonal Evolution Through the Light of Retrotransposons.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- The expression, regulation, and function of human endogenous retroviruses in genitourinary cancers.Cell death discovery · 2025Review
- Receptor usage of Syncytin-1: ASCT2, but not ASCT1, is a functional receptor and effector of cell fusion in the human placenta.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- How Much Do You Fuse? A Comparison of Cell Fusion Assays in a Breast Cancer Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Cell Fusion and Syncytia Formation in Cancer.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2024Review
- Galectin-1 Modulates the Fusogenic Activity of Placental Endogenous Retroviral Envelopes.Viruses · 2023Article
- Molecular mechanisms of syncytin-1 in tumors and placental development related diseases.Discover oncology · 2023Review
- Intrinsic signalling factors associated with cancer cell-cell fusion.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2023Review
- Review
- Specific human endogenous retroviruses predict metastatic potential in uveal melanoma.JCI insight · 2022Article
- HERV-K and HERV-H Env Proteins Induce a Humoral Response in Prostate Cancer Patients.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Transcriptional and reverse transcriptional regulation of host genes by human endogenous retroviruses in cancers.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Cell-Cell Fusion Mediated by Viruses and HERV-Derived Fusogens in Cancer Initiation and Progression.Cancers · 2021Review
- Heterologous avian system for quantitative analysis of Syncytin-1 interaction with ASCT2 receptor.Retrovirology · 2021Article
- HERV-DerivedInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSyncytin-1 and 2, human fusogenic glycoproteins encoded by the env genes of the endogenous retroviral loci ERVWE1 and ERVFRDE1, respectively, contribute to the differentiation of multinucleated syncytiotrophoblast in chorionic villi. In non-trophoblastic cells, however, the expression of syncytins has to be suppressed to avoid potential pathogenic effects. Previously, we have shown that the transcriptional suppression of ERVWE1 promoter is controlled epigenetically by DNA methylation and chromatin modifications. In this study, we describe the aberrant expression of syncytin-1 in biopsies of testicular germ cell tumors.
resultsWe found efficient expression and splicing of syncytin-1 in seminomas and mixed germ cell tumors with seminoma component. Although another fusogenic gene, syncytin-2 was also derepressed in seminomas, its expression was significantly lower than that of syncytin-1. Neither the transcription factor GCM1 nor the increased copy number of ERVWE1 were sufficient for this aberrant expression of syncytin-1 in seminomas. In accordance with our recent finding of the highly increased expression of TET1 dioxygenase in most seminomas, the ERVWE1 promoter was significantly hypomethylated in comparison with the matched controls. In contrast, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels were not detectable at the ERVWE1 promoter. We further describe that another endogenous retroviral element adjacent to ERVWE1 remains transcriptionally suppressed and two additional HERV-W family members are only slightly upregulated in seminomas.
conclusionsWe conclude that DNA demethylation of the ERVWE1 promoter in seminomas is a prerequisite for syncytin-1 derepression. We propose the spliced syncytin-1 expression as a marker of seminoma and suggest that aberrant expression of endogenous retroviruses might be a correlate of the hypomethylated genome of seminomas.
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