AUTHOR=Morandi Elena , Tanasescu Radu , Tarlinton Rachael E. , Constantin-Teodosiu Dumitru , Gran Bruno TITLE=Do Antiretroviral Drugs Protect From Multiple Sclerosis by Inhibiting Expression of MS-Associated Retrovirus? JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.03092 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.03092 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
The expression of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) has been associated with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The MS-related retrovirus (MSRV/HERV-W) has the potential to activate inflammatory immunity, which could promote both susceptibility and progression toward MS. A connection between HERVs and MS is also supported by the observation that people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may have a lower risk of developing MS than the HIV non-infected, healthy population. This may be due to suppression of HERV expression by antiretroviral therapies (ART) used to treat HIV infection. In this pilot study, we compared RNA expression of the envelope gene of MSRV/HERV-W, as well as Toll-like receptors (TLR) 2 and 4, in a small cohort of HIV+ patients with MS patients and healthy controls (HC). An increased expression of MSRV/HERV-W