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. 2012 Aug;93(Pt 8):1696-1699.
doi: 10.1099/vir.0.041764-0. Epub 2012 May 9.

Silencing of endogenous envelope genes in human choriocarcinoma cells shows that envPb1 is involved in heterotypic cell fusions

Lars Aagaard  1   2 , Bolette Bjerregaard  3   2 , Anders L Kjeldbjerg  4 , Finn Skou Pedersen  4 , Lars-Inge Larsson  3 , John J Rossi  2
Affiliations

Silencing of endogenous envelope genes in human choriocarcinoma cells shows that envPb1 is involved in heterotypic cell fusions

Lars Aagaard et al. J Gen Virol. 2012 Aug.

Abstract

Syncytin-1 and envPb1 are two conserved envelope genes in the human genome encoded by single loci from the HERV-W and -Pb families, respectively. To characterize the role of these envelope proteins in cell-cell fusion, we have developed lentiviral vectors that express short hairpin RNAs for stable knockdown of syncytin-1 and envPb1. Analysis of heterotypic fusion activity between trophoblast-derived choriocarcinoma BeWo cells, in which syncytin-1 and envPb1 are specifically silenced, and endothelial cells demonstrated that both syncytin-1 and envPb1 are important to fusion. The ability to fuse cells makes syncytin-1 and envPb1 attractive candidate molecules in therapy against cancer. Our available vectors may help eventually to decipher roles for these genes in human health and/or disease.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Silencing of syncytin-1 and EnvPb1 reduces BeWo-HUVEC cell fusion activity. (a) Representative images from co-culture experiments. BeWo cells were stained with the epithelial marker cytokeratin (Alexa-488; green) and HUVEC cells were stained with the endothelial marker vimentin (Alexa-594; red). Nuclei are stained with Hoechst (blue). BeWo cells were transduced with an ‘empty’ lentivirus expressing no siRNA (pHIV7), a irrelevant control siRNA targeting HIV-1 (U6-shS1), a syncytin-1-targeting siRNA (U6-shW) or a envPb1-targeting siRNA (U6-shPb1). (b) Percentages of fused HUVEC cells after co-culture with transduced BeWo cells expressing an shRNA targeting syncytin-1 (means±sd; asterisks indicate P<0.0001). (c) Similar to (b), but with transduced BeWo cells expressing an shRNA targeting envPb1 (means±sd; asterisks indicate P<0.0001).
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