The research group of Professor Fan ZHU in Medical school of Wuhan University, collaborated with the group of researcher Shaojun LIU in Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), found that HERV-W env (syncytin-1) overexpression might be an indicator of UCC risk. The article was published on the authoritative oncology magazine Oncogene (Impact factor: 8.559). Human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) has a considerable genome equivalent to 8% of the human genome. Recent studies have reported that multiple HERV genes and long terminal repeats (LTRs) are involved in human tumorigenesis. The authors demonstrated that HERV-W env (syncytin-1) was overexpressed in 75.6% (62/82) of urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) tissues of the bladder compared with only 6.1% (5/82) of matched tissues adjacent to tumor (P<0 .001). syncytin-1 overexpression increased proliferation and viability of immortalized human uroepithelial cells. syncytin-1 3'-ltr mutations (142t>C and 277A>G) were present in 87.8% (72/82) of UCC tissues. Interestingly, 3'-LTR mutations were significantly associated with syncytin-1 overexpression. 3'-LTR mutations, especially the 142T>C mutation, enhanced the syncytin-1 promoter activity and expression. Furthermore, they demonstrated that an alternative interaction between c-Myb and 3'-LTRs occurred in the case of 142T>C mutation. C-Myb activated the promoter activity and expression of syncytin-1 by binding to mutant 3'-LTRs.

Professor Fan ZHU, the Chair and Professor of the department of medical microbiology, mainly studies the role of virus in the host cells. His interesting areas lie in two: 1) Study of Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs) in multiple sclerosis and Schizophrenia; 2) Study of HBV in HCC. Dr. Honglian YU and Dr. Tao LIU are the co-first authors of the study. The whole article is available at: http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v33/n30/full/onc2013366a.html