Studying cervical cancer

A breakthrough in studying cervical cancer has enabled researchers to produce sufficient amounts of a protein produced by HPV – now they hope to develop drugs to target this protein

HPV Credit: Flickr/AJC1

Researchers from the University of Leeds were the first to produce adequate amounts of E5 – a protein produced by the human papilloma virus (HPV) which is capable of transforming cells and initiating cancer. This meant they could study it in the laboratory in detail for the first time.

“We are really excited about this study,” said leader Dr Andrew Macdonald. “Very little is known about this protein because no one has ever really been able to express it in the lab in sufficient quantities to study it, but we have recently learned how to do that.”

Macdonald and his colleagues discovered the E5 protein forms a ring like structure that is able to puncture cell membranes, creating what is known as a virus encoded ion channel. Now, they hope to target therapeutic drugs at the channel to try and block the pore.

“There is a major drive in the HPV community to develop therapeutics, hand in hand with the cervical cancer vaccination, but the question has always been ‘what do you target?’” said Macdonald. “We have now found a function that we can use to target these drugs.”

The project – which Macdonald hopes will result in a valuable toolkit to increase the understanding of E5 – is being funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.

HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancers – the second most common cancer in women in the developed world. It also affects men and is associated with head and neck cancers, and anal and penile cancers – but not all people infected with the virus will go on to develop cancer.