HERV-K and HERV-H Env Proteins Induce a Humoral Response in Prostate Cancer Patients

Maria Antonietta Manca; Tatiana Solinas; Elena Rita Simula; Marta Noli; Stefano Ruberto; Massimo Madonia; Leonardo A Sechi

doi:10.3390/pathogens11010095

HERV-K and HERV-H Env Proteins Induce a Humoral Response in Prostate Cancer Patients

Pathogens. 2022 Jan 14;11(1):95. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11010095.

Authors

Maria Antonietta Manca¹, Tatiana Solinas^{2

3}, Elena Rita Simula¹, Marta Noli¹, Stefano Ruberto¹, Massimo Madonia^{2

3}, Leonardo A Sechi^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università di Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
² Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Chirurgiche e Sperimentali, Università di Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
³ Struttura Complessa di Urologia, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
⁴ Struttura Complessa di Microbiologia e Virologia, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria, 07100 Sassari, Italy.

Abstract

A higher expression of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) has been associated with several malignancies, including prostate cancer, implying a possible use as a diagnostic or prognostic cancer biomarker. For this reason, we examined the humoral response against different epitopes obtained from the envelope protein of HERV-K (HERV-K env-su_19-37, HERV-K env-su_109-126), HERV-H (HERV-H env-su_229-241, HERV-H env_387-399) and HERV-W (HERV-W env-su_93-108, HERV-W env-su_248-262) in the plasma of patients affected by prostate cancer (PCa), and compared to that of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and a borderline group of patients with atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP) and prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and healthy controls. A significant antibody response was observed against HERV-K env-su_109-126 (p = 0.004) and HERV-H env-su_229-241 (p < 0.0001) in PCa patients compared to HCs, BPH and borderline cohorts, whilst no significance difference was found in the antibodies against HERV-W env-su_93-108 and HERV-W env-su_248-262 in patients with PCa. Our results provided further proof of the association between HERV-K and PCa and added new evidence about the possible involvement of HERV-H in PCa pathogenesis, highlighting their possibility of being used as biomarkers of the disease.

Keywords: ELISA; HERV-H; HERV-K; humoral response; prostate cancer.

Abstract

Grants and funding