Involvement of Human Papillomaviruses in Cervical Cancer

Delivery of microRNAs by Extracellular Vesicles in Viral Infections: Could the News be Packaged?

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released by various cells and recently have attracted attention because they constitute a refined system of cell-cell communication. EVs deliver a diverse array of biomolecules including messenger RNAs (mRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), proteins and lipids, and they can be used as potential biomarkers in normal and pathological conditions. The cargo of EVs is a snapshot of the donor cell profile; thus, in viral infections, EVs produced by infected cells could be a central player in disease pathogenesis. In this context, miRNAs incorporated into EVs can affect the immune recognition of viruses and promote or restrict their replication in target cells. In this review, we provide an updated overview of the roles played by EV-delivered miRNAs in viral infections and discuss the potential consequences for the host response. The full understanding of the functions of EVs and miRNAs can turn into useful biomarkers for infection detection and monitoring and/or uncover potential therapeutic targets.

Recent Advances on the Molecular Mechanism of Cervical Carcinogenesis Based on Systems Biology Technologies

Cervical cancer is one of the common malignancies in women worldwide. Exploration of pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of cervical cancer is pivotal for development of effective treatment for this disease. Recently, systems biology approaches based on high-throughput technologies have been carried out to investigate the expression of some genes and proteins in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabonomics of cervical cancer. Compared with traditional methods，systems biology technology has been shown to provide large of information regarding prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for cervical cancer. These molecular signatures from system biology technology could be useful to understand the molecular mechanisms of cervical cancer development and progression, and help physicians to design targeted therapeutic strategies for patients with cervical cancer.

Releasing the Immune System Brakes Using siRNAs Enhances Cancer Immunotherapy

Therapeutic dendritic cell (DC) cancer vaccines rely on the immune system to eradicate tumour cells. Although tumour antigen-specific T cell responses have been observed in most studies, clinical responses are fairly low, arguing for the need to improve the design of DC-based vaccines. The incorporation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against immunosuppressive factors in the manufacturing process of DCs can turn the vaccine into potent immune stimulators. Additionally, siRNA modification of ex vivo-expanded T cells for adoptive immunotherapy enhanced their killing potency. Most of the siRNA-targeted immune inhibitory factors have been successful in that their blockade produced the strongest cytotoxic T cell responses in preclinical and clinical studies. Cancer patients treated with the siRNA-modified DC vaccines showed promising clinical benefits providing a strong rationale for further development of these immunogenic vaccine formulations. This review covers the progress in combining siRNAs with DC vaccines or T cell therapy to boost anti-tumour immunity.

HPV genotype distribution among women with normal and abnormal cervical cytology in Turkey

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to determine the human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype distribution and to investigate the relationship between HPV genotypes and cervical cytology in women with HPV infection.

METHODS

In this study, 493 women who were admitted to the obstetrics clinic between 2007 and 2015 years and had HPV positivity were examined retrospectively.

RESULTS

The median age of women included in the study was 37.3 ±10.6. The positivity of single and multiple HPV genotypes was 64.1% and 35.9%, respectively. HPV16 was the most common genotype in women with normal and abnormal cytology. The incidence of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (chi-square:8.32 p=0.04) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (chi-square:13.75 p<0.001) with HPV16 was significantly higher than in other HPV genotypes. In additional, abnormal cytology results in the group 1 (includ-ed HPV16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59) and group 4 (included HPV40, 42, 54, 55, 61, 62, 81, 83, 84) were significantly higher than other groups (chi-square:23.15 p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Group 1 genotype ratios were found to be quite high among women with abnormal cytology and women with normal cytology. For this reason, close follow-up is very important in addition to cytological findings along with genotyping, especially from an early age. We were found that multiple HPV infection was not related to the grades of cytological abnormalities. Although abnormal cytology results in group 4 were significantly higher than the other groups, it was not possible to comment on the relationship between these genotypes and cervical cancer since more than one HPV genotype was found in most of these women.