RESEARCH ARTICLE
Further Evidence that Human Endogenous Retrovirus K102 is a Replication Competent Foamy Virus that may Antagonize HIV-1 Replication
Marian P. Laderoute*, #, 1, 4, Louise J. Larocque$, 1, Antonio Giulivi2, 4, Francisco Diaz-Mitoma3, 4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2015Volume: 9
First Page: 112
Last Page: 122
Publisher ID: TOAIDJ-9-112
DOI: 10.2174/1874613601509010112
Article History:
Received Date: 25/4/2015Revision Received Date: 30/9/2015
Acceptance Date: 3/10/2015
Electronic publication date: 8/12/2015
Collection year: 2015
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Objective:
The goals of the research were to determine if a foamy effect on macrophages was due to human endogenous retrovirus K102 (HERV-K102) replication, and to further address its potential significance in HIV-1 infection.
Methods:
An RT-PCR HERV-K HML-2 pol method was used to screen the unknown HERV, and isolated bands were sent for sequencing. Confirmation of RNA expression was performed by a real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) pol ddCt method. Rabbit antibodies to Env peptides were used to assess expression by immunohistology and processing of Env by western blots. A qPCR pol ddCt method to ascertain genomic copy number was performed on genomic DNA isolated from plasma comparing HIV-1 exposed seronegative (HESN) commercial sex workers (CSW) to normal controls and contrasted with HIV-1 patients.
Results:
HERV-K102 expression, particle production and replication were associated with foamy macrophage generation in the cultures of cord blood mononuclear cells under permissive conditions. A five-fold increased HERV-K102 pol genomic copy number was found in the HESN cohort over normal which was not found in HIV-1 positive patients (p=0.0005).
Conclusions:
This work extends the evidence that HERV-K102 has foamy virus attributes, is replication competent, and is capable of high replication rate in vivo and in vitro. This may be the first characterization of a replication-competent, foamy-like virus of humans. High particle production inferred by increased integration in the HESN cohort over HIV-1 patients raises the issue of the clinical importance of HERV-K102 particle production as an early protective innate immune response against HIV-1 replication.
