Fig. 2: The activation of HERV is influenced by environmental factors and epigenetic modifications.
From: The expression, regulation, and function of human endogenous retroviruses in genitourinary cancers

External environmental factors, such as chemical substances, physical inducing agents, and exogenous viral infection, can upregulate the expression of HERVs; epigenetic regulation by DNA methylation and histone modification can also upregulate the expression of HERVs (Created with BioRender.com).