Immune Responses to Papillomavirus Infections

Dear Colleagues,

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most common sexually transmitted disease that causes approximately 5% of human cancers. Current prophylactic vaccines are effective at preventing HPV infections but provided no therapeutic effect on pre-existing HPV infections. Intriguingly, most HPV (about 90%) infections are cleared by hosts within 1-2 years after exposure. Understanding host control of HPV infections will potentially shed light on the development of novel therapy for HPV associated diseases and cancers.

Innate and adaptive immunity have contributed to recognize and fight HPV infections. However, HPV has several mechanisms for circumventing the immune responses. Frist, HPV uses rare codons for its genes. Therefore, most genes are expressed in a level undetectable by the immune system. Second, HPV infects, and reproduces in skin and mucosal keratinocytes, which are distant from immune centers and have a naturally short lifespan. The naturally short lifespan of the keratinocytes avoids the need for the virus to destroy these infected cells, which would trigger inflammation and immune responses. Third, HPV downregulates the expression of anti-viral interferon genes which leads to prolonged viral infections, a risk factor for HPV associated cancer development.

The current issue covers research relating to how the immune system effectively clear papillomavirus infections, and what immune responses are key factors in this optimum outcome. We would like to invite you to share your recent findings or perspectives on host immunity to papillomavirus, including but not limited to innate and adaptive immune responses in preclinical models and human studies. 

Dr. Jiafen Hu
Dr. Vivien Béziat
Guest Editors

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