Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are important communicable pathogens and are the causative agent of many anogenital cancers, in particular cervical cancer. Approximately 95 percent of cervical cancers have been linked to high-risk variants of HPV and cause approximately 200,000 deaths per year worldwide. Papillomaviruses are small non-enveloped DNA tumor viruses with a genome of approximately 8 Kb in length that encodes 8-10 gene products. I am interested in the entry mechanism HPV uses to enter the host cell. To study this question I plan to use pseudovirions to investigate interactions between HPV and proteins on the surface of the host cell and the early entry events that lead to infection of the host cell. ? ?
| Hindmarsh, Patrick L; Laimins, Laimonis A (2007) Mechanisms regulating expression of the HPV 31 L1 and L2 capsid proteins and pseudovirion entry. Virol J 4:19 |
