Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV)-Related Endogenous Sequence, HRES-1, Encodes a 28-kDa Protein: A Possible Autoantigen for HTLV-I Gag-Reactive Autoantibodies

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 89; no. 5; pp. 1939 - 1943
• Main Authors: Banki, K., Maceda, J., Hurley, E., Ablonczy, E., Mattson, D. H., Szegedy, L., Hung, C., Perl, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 01-03-1992; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: AIDS; AIDS/HIV; Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Antibodies; Autoantibodies - analysis; Autoantigens; Autoantigens - chemistry; Autoantigens - immunology; Autoantigens - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Cell lines; Cross Reactions; Deltaretrovirus Antibodies - immunology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes. Genome; Human T lymphotropic virus 1; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 - genetics; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 - immunology; Humans; Immune System Diseases - immunology; Immunology; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Open reading frames; Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic - immunology; T lymphocytes; Virus Integration; Viruses; Virus; Human; Autoantigen; Endogenous; Gene product; Cross reaction; Retroviridae; Autoantibody; HTLV virus; Gene expression; Open reading frame
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.89.5.1939

The presence of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-related endogenous sequence, HRES-1, in the human genome has been documented. The HRES-1 genomic locus is transcriptionally active and contains open reading frames. Antibodies 232 and 233, specific for synthetic peptides pep14-24 and pep117-127, corresponding to two nonoverlapping HTLV-related regions in the longer open reading frame of HRES-1, recognize an identical 28-kDa protein in H9 human T cells. Thus, HRES-1 is a human endogenous retroviral sequence capable of protein expression. HRES-1/p28 is localized to the cytoplasm and nuclear bodies. While HTLV-I-specific antibodies react with HRES-1 peptides, antibody 233 crossreacts with HTLV-I gag p24 protein. Three consecutive highly charged amino acid residues, Arg-Arg-Glu, present in both HRES-1 pep117-127 and HTLV-I gag p24 are likely to be the core of cross-reactive epitopes. The prevalence of antibodies to HRES-1 peptides pep14-24 and pep117-127 was determined in 65 normal blood donors and 146 patients with immunological disorders. Sera of patients with multiple sclerosis (19 out of 65, 29%), progressive systemic sclerosis (4 out of 17, 23%), systemic lupus erythematosus (4 out of 19, 21%), and Sjogren syndrome (2 out of 19, 10%) contained significantly higher HRES-1 peptide binding activity than sera of normal donors. Sera of patients with AIDS showed no specific binding to HRES-1 peptides. Nine of 30 HRES-1-seropositive patients showed immunoreactivity to HTLV-I gag p24. The data indicate that HRES-1/p28 may serve as an autoantigen eliciting autoantibodies cross-reactive with HTLV-I gag antigens.