HPV disease transmission protection and control

Abstract

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) represent a large collection of viral types associated with significant clinical disease of cutaneous and mucosal epithelium. HPV-associated cancers are found in anogenital and oral mucosa, and at various cutaneous sites. Papillomaviruses are highly species and tissue restricted, and these viruses display both mucosotropic, cutaneotropic or dual tropism for epithelial tissues. A subset of HPV types, predominantly mucosal, are also oncogenic and cancers with these HPV types account for more than 200,000 deaths world-wide. Host control of HPV infections requires both innate and adaptive immunity, but the viruses have developed strategies to escape immune detection. Viral proteins can disrupt both innate pathogen-sensing pathways and T-cell based recognition and subsequent destruction of infected tissues. Current treatments to manage HPV infections include mostly ablative strategies in which recurrences are common and only active disease is treated. Although much is known about the papillomavirus life cycle, viral protein functions, and immune responsiveness, we still lack knowledge in a number of key areas of PV biology including tissue tropism, site-specific cancer progression, codon usage profiles, and what are the best strategies to mount an effective immune response to the carcinogenic stages of PV disease. In this review, disease transmission, protection and control are discussed together with questions related to areas in PV biology that will continue to provide productive opportunities of discovery and to further our understanding of this diverse set of human viral pathogens.

Expression of different L1 isoforms of Mastomys natalensis papillomavirus as mechanism to circumvent adaptive immunity

“…Considering the cross-talk between viral infections and the immune system, PVs have developed multiple strategies to escape from immune surveillance ( Bordignon et al, 2017 ). While there is plenty of information about how innate immunity as the first line of defense is circumvented ( Christensen, 2016 ; Smola et al, 2017 ), less is known about the humoral immune response in terms of generation of protecting antibodies during the natural course of a PV infection.…”

A Fixed Herbal Combination – A New Approach in HPV Cervical Infection Treatment

“…The large family of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) comprises over 200 types of strains [1], some of which having developed different strategies to persist in the population. They are responsible for benign diseases like anogenital and other mucocutaneous warts or recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, and also for various malignancies including the majority of cervical cancers, most anal cancers, around half of head and neck cancers [2][3][4] as well as vulvar (around 40%), vaginal (around 70%) and penile (around 50%) cancers [1], causing significant morbidity in general population [5,6]. Even after identifying the viral proteins necessary for the genome replication and partitioning (E1 and E2 proteins) or for the cell proliferation and apoptotic inhibition (E6 and E7 proteins), it still lacks an effective intra-body antiviral treatment [6].…”

Immunology of Cervical Cancer

“…Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection represents one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections, particularly in the sexually active population, but only 10% of cases will develop a persistent infection 1 . HPV infection persistence is recognized as a requirement for the development of invasive cancer 2 .…”