Identification of human endogenous retroviral antigen and its association with diseases

为了鉴定人内源性逆转录病毒基因产物在人体组织中的存在，我们利用基因技术制备了几种重组蛋白。从人内源性逆转录病毒样基因组DNA中获得了一种env基因产物。我们纯化了该重组蛋白，并免疫兔产生抗体。通过对重组env基因产物的抗体检测，我们发现胎盘中存在人内源性逆转录病毒抗原。我们在系统性红斑狼疮患者血清中检测到针对该蛋白的天然抗体。然后利用杆状病毒载体系统制备重组蛋白。我们用位点诱变的方法对编码人内源性逆转录病毒样DNA gag区的基因组DNA进行了修饰，产生了长长度的开放阅读框。利用该修饰的DNA获得了猫白血病病毒小鼠对应的gag蛋白重组蛋白。将该重组蛋白与抗小鼠白血病病毒p30血清进行Western杂交，显示出较强的阳性反应。这些结果表明，人内源性逆转录病毒样序列与小鼠白血病病毒基因组同源。我们的结果可能有助于了解人类内源性逆转录病毒与人类疾病之间的关系。

To identify the presence of human endogenous retroviral gene product in human tissue, we prepared several recombinant proteins by using gene technology. One of env gene product derived from human endogenous retrovirus like genomic DNA was produced in E. coli. We purified this recombinant protein and immunized to rabbit produce antibody. By using antibody against recombinant env gene product we observed the presence of human endogenous retroviral antigen in the placenta. We detected natural antibody against this protein in the patient sera from systemic lupus erythematosus. Next we prepared recombinant protein using Baculovirus vector system. We modified the genomic DNA encoding gag region of human endogenous retrovirus like DNA by site mutagenesis to produce long-sized openreading frame. By using this modified DNA we obtained recombinat protein corresponding gag protein fo murine of feline leukemia virus. When developing Western hybridization of this recombinant protein with anti-murine leukemia viral p30 serum, the recombinat protein showed strong positivity. These results indicated the origin of human endogenous retrovirus like sequences are derived same origin with murine leukemia virus genome.Our results may help to understand the association between human endogenous retrovirus and human diseases in future.