Why the study?
Retroviral envelope proteins of the HERV-W family, specifically syncytin-1 and pHERV-W, are established potential risk factors in MS, prompting investigation into the humoral response to their peptides across acute and stable disease phases.
Antibody responses to pHERV-W env may serve as useful biomarkers for monitoring the inflammatory stages of multiple sclerosis.
The role of retroviral envelope proteins belonging to the Human Endogenous Retroviral family 'W' (HERV-W), specifically syncytin-1 and pathogenic HERV-W (pHERV-W), as potential risk factors in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been established. This study aimed to investigate the humoral response to syncytin-1 and pHERV-W-derived peptides in a group of relapsing remitting MS patients categorized as having acute or stable disease. Furthermore, an inhibition assay was conducted to assess the extent of cross-reactivity between the two epitopes. The findings revealed that MS patients in the acute phase exhibited a higher specific antibody response to the pHERV-W env epitope compared to syncytin-1. This suggests a potential pathogenic role for pHERV-W env during the inflammatory stages of central nervous system involvement, and these antibody responses could serve as useful biomarkers for monitoring the progression of the disease.
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Ruberto et al. (2023) studied this question.
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