Fig. 4: Potential mechanisms of HERV-mediated oncogenesis.
From: The expression, regulation, and function of human endogenous retroviruses in genitourinary cancers
HERVs can be involved in the expression of oncogenes as alternative promoters or enhancers of oncogenes. Expression products or ncRNAs of HERVs can also be involved in tumor formation. In addition, HERV-mediated gene recombination and insertion mutations may also lead to the activation of oncogenes or the disruption of oncogenes. Finally, HERVs may also promote tumor formation through cell fusion or by evading immune surveillance (Created with BioRender.com).
