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。利用重组env基因产物的抗体，我们观察到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该蛋白的天然抗体。接下来，我们利用杆状病毒载体系统制备重组蛋白。我们通过点突变的方法对编码人内源性逆转录病毒类DNA的基因组DNA进行了修饰，得到了大小较长的开放阅读框。利用修饰后的DNA，我们获得了猫白血病病毒小鼠的重组蛋白对应的Gag蛋白。将该重组蛋白与小鼠白血病病毒P30抗血清进行Western杂交，结果显示重组蛋白呈强阳性。这些结果表明人类内源性逆转录病毒样序列的起源与小鼠白血病病毒基因同源，我们的结果可能有助于进一步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.