Effects of cytokines on long control region transcriptional activity in high-risk cutaneous human papillomavirus types 5 and 8.

Cytokines play an important role in the control of mucosal HPV transcription. However, there is little data available on cutaneous HPVs, which are associated with non-melanoma skin cancers. Here, we describe a cell-based assay exploiting HaCaT keratinocytes stably transfected with a reporter construct containing the long control region (LCR) regulatory sequence of gene transcription in HPV-5 and HPV-8. This novel assay has allowed the first systematic analysis of the effects of cytokines on HPV-5 and HPV-8 LCR activity and provides a valuable tool for the search for cutaneous HPV-gene expression inhibitors.