Dana-Farber Investigator Found That Normally Defunct Viral Genes That Lie Dormant in the Human Genome Can Be Activated in the Most Common Form of Kidney Cancer (Cell Renal Cell Carcinomea) and Can End End Triggering an immune response against the cancer. The human genome contains viral dna that was integrated into the genomic code long ago. A subset of these viral genes can still be reactive under certain circumstans to produce viral proteins.

Published in Cellthis study showed that when the tumor suppressor gene vhl is inactively by a mutation – A hallmark of clear cell renal cell cancer cells -these viruses in OR Genome (Called Endogenouuses) Likely to produce their proteins and that process is driven by a human protein called hif2, which is overabundant when vhl is cripped.

The team also found that the cancer cells break these Viral Proteins Into Fragments and Present them on the Cell Surface as Flags that have the information that have the potential an immule an immune response. Additional Tests in Human Samples and in Mice Sugged that these flags can be detected by the immune cells called t cells and do stimulate an immune response against the cancer.

Evidence Suggessts That Kidney Cancer, Unlike Most Other Forms of Cancer, is sometimes eradicated by the immune system. Exactly how is not well undersrstood. This study sugges that the immune system can mount an attack on cancer cells that, due to the presence of cancer-driving mutations, present fragments of endogenous retrooviral proteins on their Surface. The discovery points to the potential for investment new ways to leverage endogenous retroviuses in the development of novel immunotheraapies.