Papillomaviruses cause epithelial tumors including cervical cancer, which is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women and is an AIDS-associated malignancy. The papillomavirus E6 oncoprotein plays a critical role in virus replication and is essential in the development of cervical cancer. A molecular structure of E6 is critical for the design of therapeutic strategies. Unfortunately, elucidating the structure of the E6 protein has remained elusive for decades because the physical properties of E6 have frustrated structural studies. This application has overcome these difficulties and will solve the solution structure of E6 by NMR techniques. The structural features of E6 at the atomic level will be correlated to its multiple biological functions.

Public Health Relevance

Papillomaviruses cause numerous cancers, including cervical cancer, because they make a protein called E6 that helps make normal cells into cancerous cells. Understanding the atomic structure of E6 will aid our understanding of how E6 works, and could lead to drugs that act against E6 and thereby against cervical cancer. This application will solve the atomic structure of E6 and perform experiments to show how the E6 structure participates in causing cancer.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA134737-02
Application #
8016659
Study Section
Virology - A Study Section (VIRA)
Program Officer
Blair, Donald G
Project Start
2010-02-01
Project End
2015-01-31
Budget Start
2011-02-01
Budget End
2012-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$398,710
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
065391526
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904
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Strickland, Sydney Webb; Vande Pol, Scott (2016) The Human Papillomavirus 16 E7 Oncoprotein Attenuates AKT Signaling To Promote Internal Ribosome Entry Site-Dependent Translation and Expression of c-MYC. J Virol 90:5611-5621
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Vande Pol, Scott (2015) Papillomavirus E6 Oncoproteins Take Common Structural Approaches to Solve Different Biological Problems. PLoS Pathog 11:e1005138
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Brimer, Nicole; Vande Pol, Scott B (2014) Papillomavirus E6 PDZ interactions can be replaced by repression of p53 to promote episomal human papillomavirus genome maintenance. J Virol 88:3027-30

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