Many neurodegenerative diseases are associated with chronic inflammation in the brain and periphery giving rise to a continuous imbalance of immune processes. Next to inflammation markers, activation of transposable elements, including long intrespersed nuclear elements (LINE) elements and endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), has been identified during neurodegenerative disease progression and even correlated with the clinical severity of the disease. ERVs are remnants of viral infections in the human genome acquired during evolution. Upon activation, they produce transcripts and the phylogenetically youngest ones are still able to produce viral-like particles. In addition, ERVs can bind transcription factors and modulate immune response. Being between own and foreign, ERVs are reviewed in the context of viral infections of the central nervous system, in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, this review tests the hypothesis that viral infection may be a trigger at the onset of neuroinflammation and that ERVs sustain the inflammatory imbalance by summarizing existing data of neurodegenerative diseases associated with viruses and/or ERVs.
【저자키워드】 virus, Neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, HERV, LINE, 【초록키워드】 Evolution, viral infection, immune response, Diseases, virus, immune, Brain, Disease progression, chronic inflammation, Central nervous system, disease, inflammation markers, Clinical severity, Hypothesis, Inflammatory, Human genome, transcription factor, elements, Activation, element, being, nuclear, transcript, addition, the disease, modulate, correlated, phylogenetically, neurodegenerative, viral-like particles, 【제목키워드】 root, retrovirus, endogenous,