The etiology of multiple sclerosis: genetic evidence for the involvement of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-Fc1

Bjørn Andersen Nexø, Tove Christensen, Jette Frederiksen, Anné Møller-Larsen, Annette B Oturai, Palle Villesen Fredsted, Bettina Hansen, Kari Konstantin Nissen, Magdalena Janina Laska, Trine Skov Petersen, Sandra Bonnesen, Anne Hedemand, Tingting Wu, Xinjie Wang, Xiuqing Zhang, Tomasz Brudek, Romana Maric, Helle B Søndergaard, Finn Sellebjerg, Klaus BrusgaardAnders Langfelt Kjeldbjerg, Henrik B Rasmussen, Anders L Nielsen, Mette Nyegaard, Thor Petersen, Anders Børglum, Finn Skou Pedersen

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We have investigated the role of human endogenous retroviruses in multiple sclerosis by analyzing the DNA of patients and controls in 4 cohorts for associations between multiple sclerosis and polymorphisms near viral restriction genes or near endogenous retroviral loci with one or more intact or almost-intact genes. We found that SNPs in the gene TRIM5 were inversely correlated with disease. Conversely, SNPs around one retroviral locus, HERV-Fc1, showed a highly significant association with disease. The latter association was limited to a narrow region that contains no other known genes. We conclude that HERV-Fc1 and TRIM5 play a role in the etiology of multiple sclerosis. If these results are confirmed, they point to new modes of treatment for multiple sclerosis.
Original languageEnglish
JournalP L o S One
Volume6
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)e16652
Number of pages5
ISSN1932-6203
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2011

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