ArticlePLoS biology2022
Widespread expression of the ancient HERV-K (HML-2) provirus group in normal human tissues.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.
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55 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolution ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Expression of Human Endogenous Retroviruses in Peripheral Blood of Acute and Chronically HIV-Infected Subjects and Effect of Antiretroviral Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Crystal structure of HERV-K envelope glycoprotein surface subunit.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- Immune landscape of the affected brain in Rasmussen encephalitis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Emerging Roles in Pathogenesis, Immunity, Biomarkers and Therapeutics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- HERV-K HML-2 transcriptional profiling and splicing pattern unveiled by direct single-molecule long-read RNA sequencing.Mobile DNA · 2026Article
- HERVOminer: a sequence similarity-based approach for recognizing endogenous retrovirus origin of the peptidome.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Article
- RETRACTED: Endogenous Retroviruses as Regulators of Innate Immune Signaling and InflammationViruses · 2026Review
- Retroelements in thyroid cancer: epigenetic plasticity, dedifferentiation, and therapeutic opportunities.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Sex-biased Expression of Genes and Transposable Elements in Hybrids from Drosophila mojavensis and Drosophila arizonae.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- CDK9 Inhibition with enitociclib reveals influence on HERV and LINE RNA abundances in whole blood, T-, and B-Cell lines.BMC medical genomics · 2026Article
- Review
- Chronic Reactivation of Persistent Human Herpesviruses EBV, HHV-6 and VZV and Heightened Anti-dUTPase IgG Antibodies Are a Recurrent Hallmark in Post-Infectious ME/CFS and is Associated With Fatigue.Journal of medical virology · 2026Article
- Tumor clusters with divergent inflammation and human retroelement expression determine the clinical outcome of patients with serous ovarian cancer.Molecular oncology · 2025Article
- The expression, regulation, and function of human endogenous retroviruses in genitourinary cancers.Cell death discovery · 2025Review
- Human Endogenous Retroviruses and Diseases.MedComm · 2025Review
- Aging impairs the antiviral defense in Caenorhabditis elegans due to loss of DRH-1/RIG-I deSUMOylation by ULP-4/SENP7.EMBO reports · 2025Article
- Strict retroelement regulation is frequently lost following cancer transformation and generates a promising reservoir of cancer biomarkers.Mobile DNA · 2025Article
- HERV-derived epitopes represent new targets for T-cell-based immunotherapies in ovarian cancer.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025Article
- Emerging Functions of the Repeat Genome in Nuclear Structure: A View from the Human Karyotype.Annual review of genomics and human genetics · 2025Review
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4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) transcripts are known to be highly expressed in cancers, yet their activity in nondiseased tissue is largely unknown. Using the GTEx RNA-seq dataset from normal tissue sampled at autopsy, we characterized individual expression of the recent HERV-K (HML-2) provirus group across 13,000 different samples of 54 different tissues from 948 individuals. HML-2 transcripts could be identified in every tissue sampled and were elevated in the cerebellum, pituitary, testis, and thyroid. A total of 37 different individual proviruses were expressed in 1 or more tissues, representing all 3 LTR5 subgroups. Nine proviruses were identified as having long terminal repeat (LTR)-driven transcription, 7 of which belonged to the most recent LTR5HS subgroup. Proviruses of different subgroups displayed a bias in tissue expression, which may be associated with differences in transcription factor binding sites in their LTRs. Provirus expression was greater in evolutionarily older proviruses with an earliest shared ancestor of gorilla or older. HML-2 expression was significantly affected by biological sex in 1 tissue, while age and timing of death (Hardy score) had little effect. Proviruses containing intact gag, pro, and env open reading frames (ORFs) were expressed in the dataset, with almost every tissue measured potentially expressing at least 1 intact ORF (gag).
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