The potential role of human endogenous retrovirus K10 in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis: a preliminary study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether human endogenous retrovirus K10 is associated with autoimmune rheumatic disease.


METHODS
A novel multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) system was developed to investigate HERV-K10 mRNA expression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.


METHODS
40 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 17 with osteoarthritis, and 27 healthy individuals were recruited and total RNA was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and analysed using multiplex RT-PCR for the level of HERV-K10 gag mRNA expression. Southern blot and DNA sequencing confirmed the authenticity of the PCR products.


RESULTS
Using the histidyl tRNA synthetase (HtRNAS) gene as a housekeeping gene in the optimised multiplex RT-PCR, a significantly higher level of HERV-K10 gag mRNA expression was found in rheumatoid arthritis than in osteoarthritis (p = 0.01) or in the healthy controls (p = 0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
There is enhanced mRNA expression of the HERV-K10 gag region in rheumatoid arthritis compared with osteoarthritis or healthy controls. This could contribute to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.
Ejtehadi
H D
HD
Molecular Immunology Research Group, Research Institute in Healthcare Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB, UK. h.ejtehadi@wlv.ac.uk
Freimanis
G L
GL
Ali
H A
HA
Bowman
S
S
Alavi
A
A
Axford
J
J
Callaghan
R
R
Nelson
P N
PN
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000821:virology*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000821:virology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014764:Viral Proteins
D004279:DNA, Viral; D015683:Gene Products, gag; C465545:HERV-K10gag protein, K10 retrovirus; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins