Department of Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830054, China.
Center of Reproductive Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830054, China.
Infect Genet Evol. 2020 Jul;81:104266. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104266. Epub 2020 Feb 27.
The incidence and mortality of cervical cancer, which mainly results from the infection of human papillomavirus (HPV) is significantly increasing in Xinjiang. According to the previous research, the incidence of HPV-68 in cervical cancer patients in Xinjiang is significantly higher than in other parts of China. HPV E6 and E7 oncoproteins play a crucial role in cervical cancer, and can be used as ideal targets for therapeutic vaccines. Therefore, we analyzed and identified the possible T-cell and B-cell dominant epitopes and various aspects of HPV-68 E6 and E7 oncoproteins, including the physicochemical properties, secondary and tertiary structures using a bioinformatic approach, which provided a basis for designing an effective HPV infection therapeutic vaccine. The results showed that E6 oncoproteins was an unstable and hydrophilic protein, while E7 oncoproteins was unstable and hydrophilic protein. The secondary structure of the E6 oncoproteins consisted of 45.57% alpha helixes, 14.56% extended strands, 4.43% beta turns and 35.44% random coils. The secondary structure of E7 oncoproteins consisted of 35.45% alpha helixes, 17.27% extended strands, 0.91% beta turns and 46.36% random coils. Moreover, our results identified 5 dominant T-cell epitopes and 6 dominant B-cell epitopes in the E6 oncoproteins structure and 5 dominant T-cell epitopes and 3 dominant B-cell epitopes in E7 oncoproteins. In conclusion, this study provides comprehensive biological information about the HPV-68 E6 and E7 oncoproteins, which will lay a theoretical foundation for multi-epitope vaccines against HPV infection.
新疆宫颈癌的发病率和死亡率显著上升，主要由人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）感染引起。根据之前的研究，HPV-68 在新疆宫颈癌患者中的感染率明显高于中国其他地区。HPV E6 和 E7 癌蛋白在宫颈癌中起关键作用，可作为治疗性疫苗的理想靶点。因此，我们采用生物信息学方法分析和鉴定了 HPV-68 E6 和 E7 癌蛋白的可能 T 细胞和 B 细胞优势表位和各个方面，包括理化性质、二级和三级结构，为设计有效的 HPV 感染治疗性疫苗提供了依据。结果表明，E6 癌蛋白是一种不稳定的亲水蛋白，而 E7 癌蛋白是不稳定的亲水蛋白。E6 癌蛋白的二级结构由 45.57%的α螺旋、14.56%的延伸链、4.43%的β转角和 35.44%的无规卷曲组成。E7 癌蛋白的二级结构由 35.45%的α螺旋、17.27%的延伸链、0.91%的β转角和 46.36%的无规卷曲组成。此外，我们的研究结果在 E6 癌蛋白结构中鉴定了 5 个主要 T 细胞表位和 6 个主要 B 细胞表位，在 E7 癌蛋白中鉴定了 5 个主要 T 细胞表位和 3 个主要 B 细胞表位。总之，本研究为 HPV-68 E6 和 E7 癌蛋白提供了全面的生物学信息，为 HPV 感染的多表位疫苗奠定了理论基础。
