The endogenous retrovirus story is getting quite interesting, particularly in dementia. Some of the top genes associated with brain atrophy appear to be genes i

The endogenous retrovirus story is getting quite interesting, particularly in dementia. Some of the top genes associated with brain atrophy appear to be genes important for suppressing retroviral activity. See FUS and TDP43. There is an increasing body of work in the literature showing that activation of endogenous retroviruses occurs as cells become aged. In many cases, these ancient viral elements in our genome can become activated by external infections.