Nature: does HPV cause cancer? At least part of the HPV silently protects us from cancer

November 16, 2019 / Biovalley BIOON / - -- in a new study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the University of Louisville found that although the virus has been criticized as a potential cancer maker, at least one kind of virus - the so-called "low-risk" human papillomavirus (HPV) - protects us from skin cancer without knowing it The relevant research results were recently published in the journal Nature, and the title of the paper is "immunity to public pavillomaviruses protections against skin cancer" The picture is from Jon Messerschmidt Patients whose immune system is inhibited by disease or drug treatment have a significantly increased risk of cancer related to virus infection, especially skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) Dr shadmehr demehri, co-author of the paper and a researcher at the Cancer Immunology Center of Massachusetts General Hospital, said that although a number of studies have tried to reveal the association between HPV infection and SCC, no study has confirmed that HPV actually drives the production of these common skin cancers Instead, by studying experimental models and tissue samples from human skin cancer, the researchers found that the "common" papillomavirus - the low-risk HPV that exists in most people's skin - appears to play an indirect protective rather than harmful role in the resistance to SCC "This is the first evidence that symbiotic viruses may have beneficial health effects in both experimental models and human bodies, and that this beneficial effect has been linked to cancer protection," he said The role of these symbiotic viruses (in this case, Papillomavirus) is to induce an immune response that protects patients from skin cancer " In patients with suppressed immune systems, the loss of immune function, rather than HPV carcinogenesis, is responsible for more than 100 times the risk of skin cancer, the researchers said Their findings suggest a new way to prevent skin cancer with a T-cell-based vaccine T cells are crucial immune system cells that recognize other cells as abnormal or foreign and label them to destroy them "A T-cell vaccine against symbiotic HPV may provide an innovative way to enhance skin immunity to the virus and help prevent warts and skin cancer in high-risk groups," they wrote They pointed out that enhancing the natural immunity to HPV may further improve the immunotherapeutic effect of using immunocheckpoint inhibitors, which are drugs that can relieve the inhibition of cancer on the immune system and allow it to recognize and destroy cancer cells There are more than 100 known HPV strains, only 12 of which are classified as high-risk HPV Among these high-risk HPV strains, some are related to cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, vulvar cancer, penile cancer and anal cancer, while others are related to head and neck cancer and oral cancer Other HPV strains, such as those studied by demehri and his colleagues, are common hitchhikers inside and outside the body and are believed to have a lower risk of serious illness Demehri and his colleagues carried out experiments on mouse models, and the results showed that mice with complete immune system and natural anti papillomavirus immunity, as well as mice with adaptive immunity to T cell metastasis, could prevent the production of skin cancer when exposed to ultraviolet or chemicals known to cause skin cancer They also tested the presence and activity of 25 known common low-risk HPVs in human skin cancer samples, and found that compared with adjacent normal skin, the virus activity and viral load in skin cancer decreased significantly, "which indicates strong immune selectivity for virus-positive malignant tumor cells." (BIOON Com) reference: 1 John D strictley et al Immunology to public pavillomaviruses protection against skin cancer Nature, 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1719-9 2 Immune response against skin drilling viruses prevention cancer https://mediaexpress.com/news/2019-10-immune-response-skin-drilling-viruses-cancer.html