HERV-K inactive or potential pathogens from within?

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) count for up to 8% of our genome, remnants of an ancestral infection and inherited through germlines [1]. Multiple HERV families have been identified in the past decades [2] and although many are inactive due to a subsequent accumulation of mutations within their sequences, a small subset have been acknowledged to be the most biologically active such as HERV type- K (HERV-K, subtype HML-2) and current research indicates that it's reactivation can be implicated in certain autoimmune disease and cancers [3,4].

Source: Journal of the Neurological Sciences - February 20, 2021 Category: Neurology Authors: Yousra Khalfallah, Angela Genge Tags: Editorial Source Type: research