OUT TODAY in Tumour Virus Research:
Nearly everyone gets #HPV. Most infections are cleared by the immune system, but a small fraction go on to cause ~5% of all cancers. #Genomics is revealing why.
Lisa Mirabello & I review the latest. 1/8
🔗https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666679023000058
The HPV genome encodes ~8 proteins. Two of these, E6 and E7, degrade p53 and pRb to promote the virus life cycle. This potentiates #cancer.
Thus, cancer is 'collateral damage' of the virus life cycle — but neither benefits the virus nor is the 'objective' of infection. 2/8
Only ~12 of 450 HPV types are carcinogenic. The riskiest is #HPV16.
Confusingly, there is a poor correlation between relatedness and cancer: HPV16's close relatives, HPV31 and HPV35, are much less carcinogenic.
The genetic basis of these differences is not well understood. 3/8
As a #PersistentVirus, the life cycle of HPV is very different from an acute virus: it only infects cells at the bottom of mucosal or skin layers, after they're exposed by micro-tears.
Here, viral genes may establish a long-term residence, potentiating cancer decades later. 4/8
HPV types have historically been treated as static, but genomics has shown that within-type variation is consequential.
For HPV16, risk of #CervicalCancer overall can differ by 29x — for only adenocarcinoma, by 137x — depending on which sublineage infects a patient. 5/8
Critically, there are safe and effective vaccines for preventing carcinogenic HPV infection.
Thus, cervical cancer is essentially preventable.
But #VaccineEquity remains a huge issue for low-income countries. 6/8
On a personal note, the thing I’m most proud of with this review is the bringing together of my experience in #PopulationGenetics with Lisa's expertise in #Epidemiology.
We think the product offers fresh clarity (BOX 1, Glossary) and ideas for future research (BOX 2). 7/8
@chasewnelson I don't mean to distract from the science, but those are very beautiful plots and illustrations!
Did you use any open source software to generate those? I'm particularly interested in the wordcloud setup
Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志
Jon Cardoso-Silva