期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1992
卷号：89
期号：21
页码：10070-10074
DOI：10.1073/pnas.89.21.10070
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Viruses, and more particularly retroviruses, have been postulated to play a role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. In a search for spumaretrovirus infection markers, we screened a group of 29 patients with Graves disease and a representative healthy population (23 subjects) as a control. Southern blot hybridization under stringent conditions, of patients' DNA extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes, with a spumaretrovirus-specific genomic probe derived from the human spumaretrovirus (HSRV) prototype, gave a positive signal in 10 cases. Moreover, by PCR, HSRV-related sequences were detected in the DNA of 19 patients (66%). Positive DNA samples in Southern blots were also positive in PCR for all regions tested (gag, bel1, bel2, long terminal repeat). Amplified (gag and bel2) products were cloned and sequenced; they showed high homology with HSRV. On the other hand, all 23 control subjects were negative by both procedures. Sera from both populations were examined for the presence of antibodies reactive with antigens of the spumaretrovirus family. These sera were negative by several immunodetection techniques: ELISA, indirect immunofluorescence, serum neutralization, and Western blotting. These results strongly suggest the existence of an association between Graves disease and the presence of HSRV-related infection markers.
