HPV disease transmission protection and control
Authors:Neil D. Christensen
doi: 10.15698/mic2016.09.530
Volume 3, pp. 476 to 490, published 05/09/2016.
The Jake Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Keywords:
HPV, animal papillomaviruses, pathogenesis, vaccines, immunotherapy, viral oncogenesis, codon modification.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
I declare no conflict of interest in the preparation of this work.
Please cite this article as:
Neil D. Christensen (2016). HPV disease transmission protection and control. Microbial Cell 3(9): 475-489. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.09.530
© 2016 Christensen. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
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.