SARS-CoV-2 RNA Reverse Transcribed to Human DNA

This article presents the study that showed that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA could integrate into the human genome. The findings help to explain why people develop autoimmunity and Long COVID after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.

And since the COVID shots contain the messenger RNA of the spike protein, it also highlights why some people develop severe adverse reactions after the shots.

I wrote about the study when it was still a “baby” when it was released as a preprint at BioRxiv.

LINE 1 can make Spike mRNA become part of the Human DNA

It was then entitled SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome. Two letters to the editor by Rhys et al. and Briggs et al. have questioned the conclusion that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be combined with human DNA.

Zhang et al. were able to answer and defend their conclusions. Since then, the study has been published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and titled, Reverse-transcribed SARS-CoV-2 RNA can integrate into the genome of cultured human cells and be expressed in patient-derived tissues.

Interestingly, if you see the preprint at BioRxiv, it still says it is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. Typically once a study has been published, there is a notice and a link to the published version.

It looks like someone is trying to lower the study’s credibility by saying it is not peer-reviewed. Are we seeing another evidence of politics mixing with science? Are they afraid that the readers will become vaccine-hesitant?

Anyway, I’m revisiting this study because it adds background to yesterday’s article, Autoimmune conditions after COVID-19 and its injections.

The reason why the study was made in the first place is that the authors are curious about why some people keep testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR testing.

You probably remember those stories at the beginning of the pandemic. People kept testing positive and continued to isolate for weeks even though they were already asymptomatic from the infection.

In the study, the authors found out why the SARS-CoV-2 RNA persisted in some people. LINE-1 is responsible.

LINE-1

Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements (LINE)-1 comprise 17% of the human genome and are the source of reverse transcriptase that can convert RNA to DNA.

SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus. The Pfizer and Moderna shots have messenger RNAs that encode for the spike protein.

When first released, many argued that mRNA in the shots could never be part of the human DNA. But it looks like they don’t know, forgot, or ignored the reverse transcriptase present in the human body.

Reverse transcriptase has done many to the body. You may be surprised that the human genome contains viral elements. Some DNA viruses readily combine with human DNA as people get viral infections.

Meanwhile, RNA viruses use reverse transcriptase to become DNA and be included in human genes.

It is comforting to know that viruses lose their infective ability when combined, and some become useful or bad.

One example is HERV-W. Learn more about it at — SARS-CoV-2 brings out an endogenous retrovirus protein to cause severe COVID-19 and Long COVID syndrome.

Results

Let’s cut through the methods and go straight to the results.

The authors have the following main findings using HEK293T cultured cell lines.

SARS-CoV-2 sequences can be integrated into the genomes of cultured human cells by a LINE1-mediated retroposition mechanism.

DNA copies of portions of the viral genome were found in almost all human chromosomes.

The figure below shows the SARS-CoV-2 genome combined with the human genes in cell culture. (bp = base pairs)

Source: Zhang L et al. Reverse-transcribed SARS-CoV-2 RNA can integrate into the genome of cultured human cells and can be expressed in patient-derived tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2021 May 25

In 32% of the chimeric genome, there was no evidence of LINE-1. This led the authors to speculate that another mechanism of reverse transcription may be present. (There’s an article below about that.)

The authors verified their findings by looking at the gene library of people infected with COVID-19 and found evidence of chimeric human SARS-CoV-2 genes.

Autoimmunity

In their conclusion, the authors warned that prolonged immune activation and autoimmune diseases might happen after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

However, if a cell with an integrated and expressed SARS-CoV-2 sequence survives and presents a viral- or neo-antigen after the infection is cleared, this might engender continuous stimulation of immunity without producing an infectious virus and could trigger a protective response or conditions such as autoimmunity as has been observed in some patients.

The results can be applied to the COVID shots. There is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins form in the body after the COVID shots.

The conditions they referred to have been reported by other authors that I presented in the following articles.

There’s a lot more. The Updated List of Covid-19 Articles

Zhang et al. mentioned that LINE-1 was absent in more than 30% of the chimeric genes and suggested that another mechanism is possible. This may be the one — Polymerase Theta can Change RNA to DNA

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Reference:

Zhang L, Richards A, Barrasa MI, Hughes SH, Young RA, Jaenisch R. Reverse-transcribed SARS-CoV-2 RNA can integrate into the genome of cultured human cells and can be expressed in patient-derived tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2021 May 25;118(21):e2105968118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2105968118. PMID: 33958444; PMCID: PMC8166107.

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LINE-1

Results

Autoimmunity

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