Beta genus papillomaviruses and skin cancer.
A role for the beta genus HPVs in keratinocyte carcinoma (KC) remains to be established. In this article we examine the potential role of the beta HPVs in cancer revealed by the epidemiology associating these viruses with KC and supported by oncogenic properties of the beta HPV proteins. Unlike the cancer associated alpha genus HPVs, in which transcriptionally active viral genomes are invariably found associated with the cancers, that is not the case for the beta genus HPVs and keratinocyte carcinomas. Thus a role for the beta HPVs in KC would necessarily be in the carcinogenesis initiation and not in the maintenance of the tumor.
Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: peter_howley@hms.harvard.edu.
Peter M
PM
Howley
Institute of Virology, University of Cologne, Fürst-Pückler-Str. 56, 50935 Cologne, Germany.
Herbert J
HJ
Pfister
D052686:Betapapillomavirus / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology*; D063646:Carcinogenesis; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000821:virology; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*
Cancer; Epidemiology; Keratinocyte; MAML1; Notch; Papillomavirus