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Quantitation of HERV-K env gene expression and splicing in human breast cancer

Oncogene volume 22, pages 1528–1535 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) comprise up to 8% of the human genome. In previous studies, we demonstrated that type 1 HERV-K envelope (env) transcripts are expressed in most human breast cancers, but not in normal breast tissues. In the current study, we report that type 2 HERV-K env transcripts are also present in human breast cancers. By real-time RT–PCR, the expression of HERV-K env transcripts was 5–10-fold higher in breast cancer cell lines treated with estradiol and progesterone than in cells without treatment, and expression was significantly higher in most breast cancer tissues than in normal breast tissues. Furthermore, both types of HERV-K env transcripts were capable of being spliced into subgenomic env transcripts and various splice donor and acceptor sites were detected in breast cancers. The selective expression and distribution of multiple HERV-K endogenous retroviral element splice variants in breast cancer, but not in normal controls, suggests that they are novel breast tumor markers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grant CRTG-99-247-01-CCE from the American Cancer Society, Grant 99-003147 from the Susan G Komen Foundation, and Grant DAMD17-00-1-0123 from the Department of the Army.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Feng Wang-Johanning, Bixi Jian & Lidia Epp

  2. Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Andra R Frost

  3. Department of Pathology and Immunology, The Lauren V. Ackerman Laboratory of Surgical Pathology, Washington University Medical Center, St Louis, MO, USA

    Danielle W Lu

  4. Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Gary L Johanning

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  1. Feng Wang-Johanning
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Correspondence to Feng Wang-Johanning.

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Wang-Johanning, F., Frost, A., Jian, B. et al. Quantitation of HERV-K env gene expression and splicing in human breast cancer. Oncogene 22, 1528–1535 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1206241

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