JRSM > Volume 98, Number 3 > Pp. 134

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Letters

Human endogenous retroviruses in health and disease

John M Grange¹ Bernd Krone²   Klaus Kölmel²

¹ Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, University College London, UK
² Faculty of Medicine, University of Göttingen, Germany

E-mail: sophia{at}hagia.freeserve.co.uk

In his excellent and comprehensive review on human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), Frank Ryan (December 2004, JRSM¹) introduces a subject that could well become of central importance in 21st century medicine. To take one example, HERVs could provide the key to understanding how environmental changes associated with improved hygiene in the industrialized nations appear to be associated with the upsurge of certain diseases, notably autoimmunity, allergy and cancer.

In this context, the risk of childhood leukaemia has been linked to hygiene-related factors,² and an extensive multicentre study showed that the risk of melanoma is reduced by certain vaccinations—BCG and vaccinia—as well as some uncommon but serious infectious diseases early in life.^3,4 Furthermore, the prognosis of melanoma patients who had previously received BCG and/or vaccinia was significantly better than that of unvaccinated patients.⁵ There is evidence that many cases of melanoma are associated with the expression of HERV-encoded proteins that induce malignant change by altering the intracellular redox potential. The 'Achilles' heel' of this process is that a HERV-derived nonapeptide or decapeptide epitope, HERV-K-MEL, is expressed on the surface of the cell undergoing malignant transformation, in principle enabling it to be recognized by the immune system.⁶ We have shown that BCG, vaccinia and the agents causing the infectious diseases that afford protection against melanoma have analogues of the HERV-K-MEL epitope and we have therefore postulated that these vaccinations or infections generate populations of cross-reactive T cells able to engage in immunosurveillance and effect repair or destruction of melanocytes expressing this antigen.⁷

Accordingly, improvements in hygiene in the industrially developed countries resulting in less infectious diseases, together with the abandonment of vaccinia vaccination in all such countries and BCG in many, could be having a deleterious effect on the development of effective immunosurveillance against at least one type of cancer.

Further epidemiological studies to determine whether malignant disease other than melanoma and leukaemia are affected by hygiene-related factors, as well as laboratory studies to confirm the molecular basis of carcinogenesis and immunosurveillance, are required. Such studies could lead to the rational development of effective preventive and immunotherapeutic agents based on the relevant HERV-encoded epitopes or on micro-organisms, including some currently available vaccines, which induce cross-reacting immune responses to such epitopes.

REFERENCES

1. Ryan FP. Human endogenous retroviruses in health and disease: a symbiotic perspective. J R Soc Med 2004; 97: 560-5[Free Full Text]

2. Perrillat F, Clavel J, Auclerc MF, et al. Day-care, early common infections and childhood acute leukaemia: a multicentre French case–control study. Br J Cancer2002; 86:1064 -9[CrossRef][Medline]

3. Pfahlberg A, Kölmel KF, Grange JM, et al. Inverse association between melanoma and previous vaccinations against tuberculosis and smallpox: results of the FEBIM study. J Invest Dermatol 2002; 119:570 -5[CrossRef][Medline]

4. Krone B, Kölmel KF, Grange JM, et al. Impact of vaccinations and infectious diseases on melanoma risk—evaluation of an EORTC case–control study. Eur J Cancer2003; 39:2372 -8

5. Kölmel KF, Grange JM, Krone B, et al. Prior immunisation of patients with malignant melanoma with vaccinia or BCG is associated with better survival. An European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer cohort study on 542 patients. Eur J Cancer 2005; 41:118 -25

6. Schiavetti F, Thonnard J, Colan D, et al. A human endogenous retroviral sequence encoding antigen recognized on melanoma by cytolytic T lymphocytes. Cancer Res 2002; 62: 5510-16[Abstract/Free Full Text]

7. Krone B, Kölmel KF, Henz BM, Grange JM. Protection against melanoma by vaccination with Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) and/or vaccinia: an epidemiology-based hypothesis on the nature of a melanoma risk factor and its immunological control. Eur J Cancer2005; 41:104 -17

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Send a Quick Comment Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Quick Comments are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Grange, J. M Articles by Kölmel, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?