ERVW-1 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: In addition to increased cortical HERV-K RNA, Li et al. [19] reported that HERV-K envelope protein was selectively expressed in cortical and spinal neurons of ALS patients and that the envelope protein was neurotoxic in stem-cell derived human neurons and in a transgenic mouse ALS model, strongly suggesting that HERV-K contributes to motor neuron disease.