Endogenous Retroviruses Provide Protection Against Vaginal HSV-2 Disease.

ABSTRACT: Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are genomic sequences that originated from retroviruses and are present in most eukaryotic genomes. Both beneficial and detrimental functions are attributed to ERVs, but whether ERVs contribute to antiviral immunity is not well understood. Here, we used herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection as a model and found that Toll-like receptor 7 (Tlr7^-/-) deficient mice that have high systemic levels of infectious ERVs are protected from intravaginal HSV-2 infection and disease, compared to wildtype C57BL/6 mice. We deleted the endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia virus (Emv2) locus on the Tlr7^-/- background (Emv2^-/-Tlr7^-/-) and found that Emv2^-/-Tlr7^-/-

SUBMITTER: Jayewickreme R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8764156 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature