Human endogenous retrovirus, HERV-P and HERV-R in pediatric leukemia patients

The “HERVs” (human endogenous retroviruses) are a family of endogenous retroviruses integrated into the germ cell DNA of primate over than 30 million years ago. HERV expression seems impaired in several diseases, ranging from autoimmune to neoplastic disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the overall endogenous retroviral transcription profile in bone marrow (BM) samples. A total of 30 pediatric lymphoid and myeloid malignancies patients were tested. Our findings show that HERV-R expression results significantly higher in leukemia patients than donors. This overexpression might be related to lymphatic leukemogenesis and it warrants further investigations.