Human endogenous retrovirus K proviruses-encoded small RNA are active biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus by transcriptome wide screening and functional prediction Raw sequence reads. Homo sapiens

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a typical autoimmune disease involving multiple systems and organs. There is an urgent need for development of a potential marker to facilitate diagnosis and prognosis. The association between human endogenous retroviruses-K (HERV-K or HML2) and SLE has been indicated, and thus, the retroviruses are potential candidates for investigation as non-invasive biomarkers in SLE. In this study, we observed the expression and functional prediction of HML2 proviruses-encoded small RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of SLE patients by bioinformatics analysis and we further assessed their diagnostic values in SLE and lupus nephritis (LN).