Fig 1.
LTRs (Long Terminal Repeat) regions bound the genome with four major viral genes: gag (encoding matrix and retroviral core), pol (reverse transcriptase and integrase), pro (protease), and env (envelope).
Fig 2.
Flow chart of the study selection and procedure.
Articles identified and selected for the qualitative and quantitative synthesis.
Table 1.
Summary of the countries in which different research groups investigated specific HERV families referenced in our study.
Table 2.
Characteristics of participants in the included studies.
Fig 3.
Forest plot and bias assessment funnel plot of comparison of the expression of (A) MSRV/HERV-Wenv in PBMC, (B) MSRV/HERV-Wpol in serum/plasma, and (C) MSRV/HERV-Wpol in CSF in MS patients vs controls.
Table 3.
Quality assessment of included studies.