![A Key Cervical Cancer Virus in the Crosshairs]()
A dozen human papillomaviruses cause cervical cancer, and one of them—HVP16—accounts for more than half of all cases. In a paper published online on September 7 in Cell, researchers analyzed the HPV16 genomes in 5,570 HPV16-infected cell and tissue samples from cases (women with cervical cancer or pre-cancer) and controls (women with benign HPV16 infections). Compared to the HPV16 genomes in the benign infections, significantly fewer differences were detected in the HPV16 genomes associated with the cancer and precancer cases. This genomic pattern was also clearly observed when researchers focused on the cancer-causing E7 gene, indicating that HPV16’s potent carcinogenicity depends on retaining the E7 gene in a conserved form. The findings suggest that drugs that disable the E7 gene or the protein it expresses could help to treat or even prevent cervical cancer. One of the paper’s co-senior authors was Robert Burk, M.D., professor of pediatrics, of microbiology & immunology, of epidemiology & population health and of obstetrics & gynecology and women’s health at Einstein.
Posted on: Monday, September 18, 2017