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Virus/Host Cell Crosstalk in Hypoxic HPV-Positive Cancer Cells
Karin Hoppe-Seyler1, Julia Mändl2,3, Svenja Adrian4
1Molecular Therapy of Virus-Associated Cancers (F065), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. k.hoppe-seyler@dkfz.de.
Abstract:
Oncogenic types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are major human carcinogens. The expression of the viral E6/E7 oncogenes plays a key role for HPV-linked oncogenesis. It recently has been found that low oxygen concentrations ("hypoxia"), as present in sub-regions of HPV-positive cancers, strongly affect the interplay between the HPV oncogenes and their transformed host cell. As a result, a state of dormancy is induced in hypoxic HPV-positive cancer cells, which is characterized by a shutdown of viral oncogene expression and a proliferative arrest that can be reversed by reoxygenation. In this review, these findings are put into the context of the current concepts of both HPV-linked carcinogenesis and of the effects of hypoxia on tumor biology. Moreover, we discuss the consequences for the phenotype of HPV-positive cancer cells as well as for their clinical behavior and response towards established and prospective therapeutic strategies.
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