Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the causative agents of 5% of all human cancers, with cervical cancer being the most important. Two viral oncoproteins, E6 and E7, are essential for the development ...and maintenance of malignancy. Both proteins function by targeting critical pathways that are essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis. As a consequence of these activities, this produces an environment that is favourable for the normal viral life cycle, but when perturbed, can result in the initiation of changes to the host cell, which ultimately results in the development of a malignancy. In this review we discuss the role of these different functions of the viral oncoproteins during the viral life cycle and carcinogenesis, with an emphasis on how induction of DNA damage by the viral oncoproteins, in conjunction with the stem like nature of the target cells, can ultimately result in the development of cancer.
Infection with HPV starts with the access of the viral particles to basal cells in the epidermis, potentially via microtraumas to the skin. The basal cells are able to keep away these pathogens in ...normal circumstances through a robust immune response from the host, as HPV infections are, in general, cleared within 2 to 3 weeks. However, the rare instances of persistent infection and/or in cases where the host immune system is compromised are major risk factors for the development of lesions potentially leading to malignancy. Evolutionarily, obligatory pathogens such as HPVs would not be expected to risk exposing the host to lethal cancer, as this would entail challenging their own life cycle, but infection with these viruses is highly correlated with cancer and malignancy-as in cancer of the cervix, which is almost always associated with these viruses. Despite this key associative cause and the availability of very effective vaccines against these viruses, therapeutic interventions against HPV-induced cancers are still a challenge, indicating the need for focused translational research. In this review, we will consider the key roles that the viral proteins play in driving the host cells to carcinogenesis, mainly focusing on events orchestrated by early proteins E5, E6 and E7-the not-so-good, the bad and the ugly-and discuss and summarize the major events that lead to these viruses mechanistically corrupting cellular homeostasis, giving rise to cancer and malignancy.
Abstract Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) comprise a diverse group, and have different epithelial tropisms and life-cycle strategies. Many HPVs are classified as low-risk, as they are only very rarely ...associated with neoplasia or cancer in the general population. These HPVs typically cause inapparent/inconspicuous infections, or benign papillomas, which can persist for months or years, but which are eventually resolved by the host's immune system. Low-risk HPVs are difficult to manage in immunosuppressed people and in individuals with genetic predispositions, and can give rise to papillomatosis, and in rare instances, to cancer. The high-risk HPV types are, by contrast, a cause of several important human cancers, including almost all cases of cervical cancer, a large proportion of other anogenital cancers and a growing number of head and neck tumours. The high-risk HPV types constitute a subset of the genus Alphapapillomavirus that are prevalent in the general population, and in most individuals cause only inconspicuous oral and genital lesions. Cancer progression is associated with persistent high-risk HPV infection and with deregulated viral gene expression, which leads to excessive cell proliferation, deficient DNA repair, and the accumulation of genetic damage in the infected cell. Although their life-cycle organisation is broadly similar to that of the low-risk HPV types, the two groups differ significantly in their capacity to drive cell cycle entry and cell proliferation in the basal/parabasal cell layers. This is thought to be linked, at least in part, to different abilities of the high- and low-risk E6 proteins to modulate the activity of p53 and PDZ-domain proteins, and the differential ability of the E7 proteins to target the several different members of the retinoblastoma protein family. This article forms part of a special supplement entitled “ Comprehensive Control of HPV Infections and Related Diseases ” Vaccine Volume 30, Supplement 5, 2012.
The Human Papillomavirus E7 oncoprotein plays an essential role in the development and maintenance of malignancy, which it achieves through targeting a number of critical cell control pathways. An ...important element in the ability of E7 to contribute towards cell transformation is the presence of a Casein Kinase II phospho-acceptor site within the CR2 domain of the protein. Phosphorylation is believed to enhance E7 interaction with a number of different cellular target proteins, and thereby increase the ability of E7 to enhance cell proliferation and induce malignancy. However, there is little information on how important this site in E7 is, once the tumour cells have become fully transformed. In this study, we have performed genome editing of the HPV-18 E7 CKII recognition site in C4-1 cervical tumour-derived cells. We first show that mutation of HPV18 E7 S32/S34 to A32/A34 abolishes CKII phosphorylation of E7, and subsequently we have isolated C4-1 clones containing these mutations in E7. The cells continue to proliferate, but are somewhat more slow-growing than wild type cells, reach lower saturation densities, and are also more susceptible to low nutrient conditions. These cells are severely defective in matrigel invasion assays, partly due to downregulation of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). Mechanistically, we find that phosphorylation of E7 plays a direct role in the ability of E7 to activate AKT signaling, which in turn is required for optimal levels of MMP secretion. These results demonstrate that the E7 CKII phospho-acceptor site thus continues to play an important role for E7's activity in cells derived from cervical cancers, and suggests that blocking this activity of E7 could be expected to have therapeutic potential.
Papillomaviruses and Endocytic Trafficking Siddiqa, Abida; Broniarczyk, Justyna; Banks, Lawrence
International journal of molecular sciences,
09/2018, Volume:
19, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Endocytic trafficking plays a major role in transport of incoming human papillomavirus (HPVs) from plasma membrane to the trans Golgi network (TGN) and ultimately into the nucleus. During this ...infectious entry, several cellular sorting factors are recruited by the viral capsid protein L2, which plays a critical role in ensuring successful transport of the L2/viral DNA complex to the nucleus. Later in the infection cycle, two viral oncoproteins, E5 and E6, have also been shown to modulate different aspects of endocytic transport pathways. In this review, we highlight how HPV makes use of and perturbs normal endocytic transport pathways, firstly to achieve infectious virus entry, secondly to produce productive infection and the completion of the viral life cycle and, finally, on rare occasions, to bring about the development of malignancy.
Decades of research on the human papillomavirus oncogenes, E6 and E7, have given us huge amounts of data on their expression, functions and structures. We know much about the very many cellular ...proteins and pathways that they influence in one way or another. However, much of this information is quite discrete, referring to one activity examined under one condition. It is now time to join the dots to try to understand a larger picture: how, where and when do all these interactions occur... and why? Examining these questions will also show how many of the yet obscure cellular processes work together for cellular and tissue homeostasis in health and disease.
PDF
