The role of human endogeneus retrovirus-W (HERV-W) in the etiopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis disease

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. It develops at an early age and often causes sequelae. The etiological cause of the disease has not been fully elucidated and there is no effective treatment yet. Our research aimed to reveal the relationship between the expression of human endogenous retroviruses and the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. In our study, we aimed to determine the Human Endogenous Retrovirus-W (HERV-W) env gene expression level and to determine the expression level of TRIM5 and BST2 host genes, which have the potential to limit/regulate HERV-W env gene expression. This study was conducted in Necmettin Erbakan University (Konya, Turkey) Medical Faculty Hospital Neurology Department with 50 follow-up patients diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting (RRMS) according to McDonald (2017) diagnostic criteria, neurodegenerative disease excluded, and 50 volunteer controls who were similar in terms of age and gender. We included 100 people. The mean age of 50 patients diagnosed with RRMS is 33.1. The mean age of onset of the diseases in this study group was 25.64, and the mean age of diagnosis of the patients was 27.1. Whole blood samples with a volume of at least 2 ml, from healthy blood donors and patients whose routine diagnosis, follow-up and treatment procedures were carried out in the neurology clinic, were used. The expression level of genes was obtained for each sample by Real Time PCR, and was determined by fold-change analysis using CT values and reference gene CT values. No significant difference was found between the study groups for the HERW-W expression . The fact that HERV-W gene expression levels can be affected by highly dynamic and sophisticated interactions led to the conclusion that it would be healthier to make the measurements we performed in our research with more than one time measurement and a process analysis. Onthe other hand, we found that the expression of the BTS-2 gene increased approximately 3.5 times compared to the control group. However, no significant difference was found between the healthy subjects and the patient group in terms of expression of TRIM5α protein. A significant relationship could not be established between TRIM5 gene expression levels and the disease and its course. High levels of BTS-2 gene expression were evaluated as a result of the effect of innate immune response on MS disease. Keywords: BTS2, HERW-W, Multiple sclerosis (MS), TRIM5,