Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Sep;50(9):7901-7907.
doi: 10.1007/s11033-023-08658-0. Epub 2023 Jul 8.

The important biological roles of Syncytin-1 of human endogenous retrovirus W (HERV-W) and Syncytin-2 of HERV-FRD in the human placenta development

Mehdi Gholami Barzoki  1 , Somayeh Shatizadeh Malekshahi  2 , Zahra Heydarifard  3 , Mohamad Javad Mahmodi  1 , Haleh Soltanghoraee  4
Affiliations
Review

The important biological roles of Syncytin-1 of human endogenous retrovirus W (HERV-W) and Syncytin-2 of HERV-FRD in the human placenta development

Mehdi Gholami Barzoki et al. Mol Biol Rep. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) entered the germ line by retroviral infection from a distant ancestor over 30 million years ago and constitute 8% of the human genome. The majorities of HERVs are non-protein coding and lack function because of the accumulation of mutations, insertions, deletions, and/or truncations. However, a small number of HERV genes carried ORFs with beneficial functions for the host.

Methods & results: In this review, we summarize the structural and important biological roles of two HERV gene products termed Syncytin-1 and Syncytin-2 in human placenta development. Indeed, two retroviral gene products that have important roles in mammalian development, Syncytin-1 (HERV-W) and Syncytin-2 (HERV-FRD), are prime examples encoded by env genes and expressed in the placental trophoblasts. Several pivotal studies revealed that Syncytins are fundamental genes implicated in regulating trophoblast fusion and placenta morphogenesis.

Conclusion: Interestingly, it has been suggested that syncytins may also be implicated in non-fusogenic activities leading to apoptosis, proliferation, and immunosuppressive activities.

Keywords: Envelope glycoprotein; Human endogenous retrovirus; Placenta; Syncytin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Saini SK, Ørskov AD, Bjerregaard A-M, Unnikrishnan A, Holmberg-Thydén S, Borch A et al (2020) Human endogenous retroviruses form a reservoir of T cell targets in hematological cancers. Nat Commun 11(1):1–14 - DOI
    1. Grandi N, Tramontano E (2018) Human endogenousretroviruses are ancient acquired elements still shaping innate immuneresponses. Front Immunol 9:2039 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Bello-Morales R, Andreu S, Ripa I, López-Guerrero JA (2021) Hsv-1 and endogenous retroviruses as riskfactors in demyelination. Int J Mol Sci 22(11):5738 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Griffiths DJ (2001) Endogenous retroviruses in thehuman genome sequence. Genome Biol 2(6):1–5 - DOI
    1. Soygur B, Sati LJR (2016) The role of syncytinsin human reproduction and reproductive organ cancers. Reproduction 152(5):R167–R178 - PubMed - DOI

LinkOut - more resources