Whats an endogenous retrovirus?
EPE: Normal human DNA contains retroviral information which did not get there following a retroviral infection. The cell was born with it. So amongst all our DNA there are stretches made up of some retroviral information, and that may sit there all your life until something happens. The DNA starts to direct the production of endogenous retroviral particles. They’re called endogenous because they’re not something that got in from the outside, like HIV is supposed to. Something that gets in from the outside is called exogenous. Long before the AIDS era everyone knew that in animal cells endogenous retrovirus production could occur spontaneously. Up until 1993, neither Gallo nor Anthony Fauci, [26] accepted that humans contain the DNA to make endogenous retroviruses. But now it’s accepted that endogenous retroviral DNA forms about 1% of human DNA. For the record, that’s about 3,000 times larger than what the experts claim is the size of the HIV genome. And what’s more, new retroviral geno
