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The oldest retroviruses have been found in human DNA
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Geneticists have identified retroviruses in human DNA, which presumably came there from our ancestors more than a million years ago. Retroviruses are a fairly broad family of viruses that primarily affect vertebrates, the most famous and studied representative of retroviruses today is HIV.
According to scientists, this discovery will help to find out what diseases ancient people suffered from, how they were treated, and perhaps this knowledge will help in developing methods for treating HIV and other retroviruses.
More than 10 retrovirus fragments were found in the human genome, as well as a completely preserved original virus genome. The experts noted that they would be able to "pull" the ancient virus out of human DNA and make it into an agent capable of infecting. John Coffin, a member of the research team, explained that the experiment is extremely interesting for the scientific community, since it will allow them to study the "behavior" of viruses in ancient times, even before the emergence of modern man.
Endogenous retroviruses are able to penetrate DNA and change it, which causes various gene mutations, both harmless and life-threatening. About 8% of endogenous retrovirus genes have been identified in the human genome, all of them are part of non-coding DNA, i.e. the part that does not contain “instructions” for producing proteins.
Dr. Coffin and his colleagues compared and analyzed the DNA structure of more than 2,000 people living in different countries. It is worth noting that the scientists also studied the African population, whose ancestors did not interbreed with Neanderthals or Denisovans. The study helped to establish that human DNA contains a much larger number of retroviral remnants than previously thought.
By comparing the genomes of a wide variety of people, scientists eventually discovered those retroviruses that are present in individual representatives of humanity. Scientists did not expect such results - the number of retroviruses turned out to be quite large, Coffin's group discovered only 20 endogenous retroviruses, one of which was a completely preserved virus, the rest were present in DNA only in fragments.
Based on the fragmentary sections of the virus, which are quite badly damaged and include many repetitions, experts cannot explain how these viruses behaved when they entered the human body and what the consequences were.
The identified full-fledged retrovirus has all the components necessary for division – genes necessary for synthesizing proteins in the shell, integrating into the DNA of the host cell and producing multiple copies.
According to the research team, the retrovirus identified today is the second one that is completely present in our DNA (the first is the K113 provirus, which is present in the DNA of 1/4 of the world's population).
John Coffin noted in his statement that by understanding the past, it is possible to build the future, which is why the discovery is of great importance for science and will allow a deeper study of the processes of disease and treatment that occurred more than a million years ago, and will also help improve the treatment of modern retroviral infections (HIV, malignant neoplasms of hematopoietic or lymphoid tissue, etc.)