Human Endogenous Retrovirus
| Aberrant expression of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) elements in the W family has been associated with schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and preeclampsia. However, the causal mechanisms for the abnormal expression of HERV-W in these disorders have not been established. The number of HERV-W elements, including long terminal repeat (LTR) regions, gag, pol and env genes, in the human genome exceeds 200 and it is not known which of these that are aberrantly expressed in the different pathological conditions.
Our research aims to determine which HERV-W elements are aberrantly expressed in human disease, how these are regulated and the functional consequences of their aberrant expression.
Our research is generously funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD. http://www.stanleyresearch.org/
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