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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Arbovirus Infections As Screening Tools for the Identification of Viral Immunomodulators and Host Antiviral Factors
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Published on: September 13, 2018

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When Viruses Cross Developmental Pathways

Pankaj Trivedi1, Sandesh Kumar Patel2, Diana Bellavia2

  • 1Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
|August 23, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Oncogenic viruses disrupt developmental pathways, driving cancer. Understanding these viral interactions can lead to more effective, targeted antiviral therapies with fewer side effects.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Virology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Aberrant regulation of developmental pathways is fundamental to tumorigenesis.
  • Tumor cells exhibit hallmarks like sustained proliferation and metastasis, often due to dysregulated Hedgehog, Notch, or WNT signaling.
  • Human tumor viruses contribute to cancer by encoding oncogenic proteins, altering the microenvironment, and inducing genomic instability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the mechanisms by which oncogenic viruses intersect with and modulate developmental pathways.
  • To understand the role of viral immune evasion in accelerating tumor growth via developmental pathway compromise.
  • To identify targets for improved antiviral therapies by exploring virus-developmental pathway cross-signaling.

Main Methods:

  • Review of literature on oncogenic viruses and developmental pathway regulation.
  • Analysis of viral oncogenic proteins and their impact on cellular signaling.
  • Investigation of viral modulation of coding and non-coding gene regulatory pathways.

Main Results:

  • Oncogenic viruses can hijack developmental pathways (Hedgehog, Notch, WNT) to promote cancer hallmarks.
  • Viral immune evasion strategies can further dysregulate developmental pathways, accelerating tumor progression.
  • Current antiviral therapies targeting viral replication show limited efficacy and significant side effects.

Conclusions:

  • Elucidating virus-developmental pathway interactions is critical for understanding viral tumorigenesis.
  • Targeting the cross-signaling between oncogenic viruses and developmental pathways offers a promising strategy for next-generation antiviral therapies.
  • A deeper understanding will enable the development of more targeted and effective antiviral treatments with improved safety profiles.
Keywords:
HedgehogNotchWNTimmune evasionmicroRNAoncogenic virusestargeted therapies

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