Activation of Transposable Elements in Immune Cells of Fibromyalgia Patients

Advancements in nucleic acid sequencing technology combined with an unprecedented availability of metadata have revealed that 45% of the human genome constituted by transposable elements (TEs) is not only transcriptionally active but also physiologically necessary. Dysregulation of TEs, including hu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of molecular sciences 2020-02, Vol.21 (4), p.1366
Main Authors: Ovejero, Tamara, Sadones, Océane, Sánchez-Fito, Teresa, Almenar-Pérez, Eloy, Espejo, José Andrés, Martín-Martínez, Eva, Nathanson, Lubov, Oltra, Elisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Cytokines - blood
dna methylation
DNA Transposable Elements - genetics
Endogenous Retroviruses
epigenetics
Fatigue - genetics
Female
fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia - blood
Fibromyalgia - genetics
Fibromyalgia - immunology
human endogenous retrovirus (herv)
Humans
interferon (inf)
Leukocytes - metabolism
Linear Models
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Biological
myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (me/cfs)
non-hodgkin’s lymphoma
RNA, Transfer - genetics
Surveys and Questionnaires
transfer rna small fragments (tsrnas)
transposable elements
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Summary:Advancements in nucleic acid sequencing technology combined with an unprecedented availability of metadata have revealed that 45% of the human genome constituted by transposable elements (TEs) is not only transcriptionally active but also physiologically necessary. Dysregulation of TEs, including human retroviral endogenous sequences (HERVs) has been shown to associate with several neurologic and autoimmune diseases, including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). However, no study has yet addressed whether abnormal expression of these sequences correlates with fibromyalgia (FM), a disease frequently comorbid with ME/CFS. The work presented here shows, for the first time, that, in fact, HERVs of the H, K and W types are overexpressed in immune cells of FM patients with or without comorbid ME/CFS. Patients with increased HERV expression (N = 14) presented increased levels of interferon (INF-β and INF-γ) but unchanged levels of TNF-α. The findings reported in this study could explain the flu-like symptoms FM patients present with in clinical practice, in the absence of concomitant infections. Future work aimed at identifying specific genomic loci differentially affected in FM and/or ME/CFS is warranted.
ISSN:1422-0067
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms21041366