Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Developmental, Molecular and Chemical Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
J Med Virol. 2023 Oct;95(10):e29191. doi: 10.1002/jmv.29191.
There has been an explosion in the number of papillomaviruses that have been identified and fully sequenced. Yet only a minute fraction of these has been studied in any detail. Most of our molecular research efforts have focused on the E6 and E7 proteins of "high-risk," cancer-associated human papillomaviruses (HPVs). Interactions of the high-risk HPV E6 and E7 proteins with their respective cellular targets, the p53 and the retinoblastoma tumor suppressors, have been investigated in minute detail. Some have thus questioned if research on papillomaviruses remains an exciting and worthwhile area of investigation. However, fundamentally new insights on the biological activities and cellular targets of the high-risk HPV E6 and E7 proteins have been discovered and previously unstudied HPVs have been newly associated with human diseases. HPV infections continue to be an important cause of human morbidity and mortality and since there are no antivirals to combat HPV infections, research on HPVs should remain attractive to new investigators and biomedical funding agencies, alike.
已鉴定和完全测序的乳头瘤病毒数量呈爆炸式增长。然而，这些病毒中只有一小部分被详细研究过。我们的大多数分子研究工作都集中在“高危”、与癌症相关的人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）的 E6 和 E7 蛋白上。高危 HPV E6 和 E7 蛋白与各自的细胞靶标 p53 和视网膜母细胞瘤肿瘤抑制剂的相互作用已被详细研究。因此，有人质疑研究乳头瘤病毒是否仍然是一个令人兴奋和有价值的研究领域。然而，高危 HPV E6 和 E7 蛋白的生物学活性和细胞靶标的全新见解已经被发现，以前未被研究的 HPV 与人类疾病新关联。HPV 感染仍然是人类发病率和死亡率的重要原因，由于没有抗病毒药物来对抗 HPV 感染，因此 HPV 的研究应该对新的研究人员和生物医学资助机构都具有吸引力。
