HPV hijacking of the epidermal growth factor receptor via its oncogenic ion channel, the E5 viroporin: a new mechanism of virus-driven pathogenesis

感染人类乳头瘤病毒（HPV）与许多疾病有关，包括生殖器疣、妇女宫颈癌和男女口腔癌。据估计，仅在美国，与治疗HPV感染和疾病相关的费用就高达80亿美元。虽然现有疫苗可以预防人乳头瘤病毒感染，但这些疫苗对已经感染病毒的人不起作用，而且在疾病负担最重的发展中国家也没有常规疫苗。目前迫切需要确定能够治疗已经感染病毒的人的药物。为此，需要更好地了解HPV如何重新连接受感染的细胞以引起疾病。我们关注的是病毒编码的一种不太为人所知的蛋白质，并表明它在感染过程中起着关键作用。我们现在想进一步研究，以了解这种蛋白质如何与感染细胞的成分相互作用，以及这种蛋白质带来的变化如何导致癌症的发展。对于这些研究，我们将使用一个模型系统，允许我们调查细胞中的HPV感染。我们的工作应该能让我们清楚地了解这种病毒编码蛋白是如何工作的，并为开发阻止其作用的药物开辟了可能性。

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with a number of diseases including genital warts, cervical cancer in women and oral cancers in both sexes. Estimates predict that the cost associated with treating HPV infections and disease is $8 billion in the USA alone. Whilst vaccines are available that can prevent HPV infection, these do not work in those already infected with the virus and they are not routinely available in the developing world, where the largest disease burden exists. Urgent need exists to identify drugs capable of treating those already infected with the virus. Towards this a better understanding of how HPV re-wires an infected cell to cause disease is required. We have focused on a less well understood protein coded by the virus and shown it plays a critical role during infection. We now want to take our research further to understand how this protein interacts with components of the infected cell, and how changes brought about by the protein might lead to cancer development. For these studies we will use a model system allowing us to investigate HPV infection in cells. Our work should give us a clear picture of how this virus coded protein works and open up the possibility of developing drugs that prevent its action.