title: High prevalence of an IgG response against murine leukemia virus (MLV) in patients with psoriasis.
abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) could participate in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus erythematosus. To assess a possible association of murine leukemia virus (MLV)-like group of HERVs with psoriasis we searched for antibodies against MLV proteins in the sera of patients. We showed that anti-MLV antibodies (total) were detected in both psoriatic and control sera. However, they were detected with a higher frequency in psoriasis when compared with controls (91 vs. 53%, respectively, P=0.001). In addition, the IgG response was dramatically increased in psoriasis (86 vs. 8%, respectively, P<0.0001). This immunoreactivity was observed against the products of both the gag and env genes, and the most antigenic proteins were the gp65-70. Moreover, we observed that anti-p30 MLV antibodies reacted with an epidermal protein with a molecular weight of 50 kDa in protein extracts from both normal and psoriatic skin cultures. These observations suggest that HERVs of the MLV-like group could contribute to the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Dermatologie Moléculaire, Institut Universitaire de Recherche Clinique, 641 avenue du Doyen G. Giraud, 34 093 Montpellier, cedex 5, France. jpm@iurc.montp.inserm.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Molès
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hadi
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Guilhou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D003429:Cross Reactions; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004817:Epidermis / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D009052:Leukemia Virus, Murine / Q000276:immunology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins