A HML6 endogenous retrovirus on chromosome 3 is upregulated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor cortex.

Jones, Ashley R, Iacoangeli, Alfredo, Adey, Brett N ORCID: 0000-0003-4356-4079, Bowles, Harry, Shatunov, Aleksey ORCID: 0000-0002-2671-8040, Troakes, Claire, Garson, Jeremy A, McCormick, Adele L and Al-Chalabi, Ammar (2021) A HML6 endogenous retrovirus on chromosome 3 is upregulated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor cortex. Scientific reports, 11 (1). 14283-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93742-3

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) play a significant role in central nervous system diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Studies of ALS have consistently identified retroviral enzyme reverse transcriptase activity in patients. Evidence indicates that ERVs are the cause of reverse transcriptase activity in ALS, but it is currently unclear whether this is due to a specific ERV locus or a family of ERVs. We employed a combination of bioinformatic methods to identify whether specific ERVs or ERV families are associated with ALS. Using the largest post-mortem RNA-sequence datasets available we selectively identified ERVs that closely resembled full-length proviruses. In the discovery dataset there was one ERV locus (HML6_3p21.31c) that showed significant increased expression in post-mortem motor cortex tissue after multiple-testing correction. Using six replication post-mortem datasets we found HML6_3p21.31c was consistently upregulated in ALS in motor cortex and cerebellum tissue. In addition, HML6_3p21.31c showed significant co-expression with cytokine binding and genes involved in EBV, HTLV-1 and HIV type-1 infections. There were no significant differences in ERV family expression between ALS and controls. Our results support the hypothesis that specific ERV loci are involved in ALS pathology.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Cerebellum, Cerebral Cortex, Motor Cortex, Animals, Humans, Proviruses, Endogenous Retroviruses, HIV, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Cytokines, Gene Expression Profiling, Computational Biology, Gene Expression Regulation, Databases, Factual, Aged, Middle Aged, Female, Male, RNA-Seq
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2023 15:52
Last Modified:	27 Mar 2023 15:52
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-021-93742-3
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3169269