IRAP-PCR As A Tool For Screening HERV Polymorphisms In Nasal Mucosal Swabs

Objective: Inter-retrotransposon polymorphism Polymerase  Chain Reaction (IRAP-PCR) technique allows for  detecting insertional polymorphisms via amplification  of the DNA fragment between two retrotransposons in  plant genomes. However, this method has not been reported  to be used for analyzing human samples to date.  Recently, Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) polymorphisms  gained interest due to their potential effect  on pathophysiology of certain diseases. Nevertheless, the  association between HERV polymorphisms and the risk  for developing nasal polyposis (NP) has not been studied.  In this study, we aimed to investigate whether or not  IRAP-PCR could be performed in nasal swab samples for  comparing HERV polymorphisms in different nasal mucosal  samples. Methods: Nasal swab samples from 16 patients were used  for DNA isolation. These DNA samples were used as templates  for IRAP PCR of HERV-K6, HERV-K11, HERV-L1 and  HERV-L2 and PCR products were analyzed by agarose gel  electrophoresis. Results: Nasal swab samples yielded enough DNA material  for successfully performing IRAP-PCR. We obtained  specific banding patterns the three out of four HERV  sequences tested in this study. No polymorphisms was  detected between samples from different patients. Similarly,  polymorphic bands was not detected between the  polyps or nasal mucosal swab samples obtained from the  same patient. Conclusion: We have, for the first time, shown that IRAPPCR  can be performed in nasal swabs. Our findings suggest  that this technique can serve as an inexpensive and  effective screening tool for investigating links between  nasal mucosal diseases and HERV polymorphisms such as  nasal polyposis.