HUMAN ENDOGENOUS FOAMY RETROVIRUS AND USES THEREOF

摘要

The invention relates to the discovery of an active human endogenousretrovirus (HERV), HERV-BZU, which appears to be the first instance of a truehumanfoamy virus. HERV-BZU is infective, causes vacuolation in cultured humanlymphocytes (under defined conditions), forms immature particles released tothesevacuoles, and is closely related to HERV-K102/ K103 and other HERV-K Type Iretroviruses. HERV-BZU seems to be transactivated by infection with bloodborneviruses. This suggests it may play a role in limiting viral invasion andreplication andthus, may be a normal early host defense response to viremia. Plasma samplesfromhealthy normal individuals do not contain HERV-BZU whereas individuals withvirus-associated chronic diseases may have viral particles in their blood.