Harald zur Hausen

..Thus, the nonhuman codon bias may have been conserved by HPVs to prevent compromising viability of the host cells by excessive viral early protein expression, as well as to evade the immune system...

..Modifications in host-cell genes, most likely engaged in the control of HPV gene expression in proliferating cells, emerge as important events in HPV-mediated carcinogenesis...

..It also makes reference to observations of polyomavirus-like particles in other conditions, particularly in hair-follicle cell-related proliferations...

..Some of the mechanistic aspects are discussed in this review...

..This review will cover some of the historical aspects of papillomavirus research; it tries briefly to analyze the present state of linking HPV to human cancers and will discuss some emerging developments...

..Significant oncolytic functions, potentially mediated by the inhibition of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB transcription factor or by apoptin-like gene activities, are emerging to be less likely...

..Existing data on polyoma-like virus types seem to render members of this or structurally related virus families as putative candidates for these malignancies...

..Epidemiological studies have underlined that HPVs are the main aetiological factor for cervical cancer. But how has this knowledge been translated into the clinic to allow the prevention, screening and treatment of cervical cancer?..

..Emphasis is placed on hematopoietic malignancies, breast and colorectal cancers, as well as basal cell carcinomas of the skin and lung cancers in nonsmokers...

..Emphasis is placed on hematopoietic malignancies, breast and colorectal cancers, but also basal cell carcinomas of the skin and lung cancers in non-smokers...

Interview by Lauren Constable, Commissioning Editor Harald zur Hausen studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Hamburg and Düsseldorf (Germany) and received his MD in 1960...

..Human tumours should be systematically assessed for proliferation-inducing viruses in non-permissive systems...

..Interferon induction by intermittent infections should reduce the viral load and thus decrease the risk for chromosomal modifications. Some virologic observations in support of this model are presented...

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..We report the presence of HPV DNA sequences in areolar tissue and tumour tissue samples from female patients with breast carcinoma. The presence of virus in the areolar-nipple complex suggests to us a potential pathogenic mechanism...

..These data indicate that loss of Net and constitutive c-fos expression appear to be a key event in the transformation of cervical cancer cells...

..Preceding, concomitant or subsequent exposure to chemical carcinogens arising during cooking procedures should result in increased risk for colorectal cancer synergistic with these infections...

..Our study describes new active HERV-E sequences and new loci throughout the human genome...

..The taxonomic status of PV types, subtypes, and variants remains unchanged and is based on the traditional criteria that the sequence of their L1 genes should be at least 10%, 2-10%, and maximally 2% dissimilar from one another...

..These results indicate that the development of squamous cell carcinomas in MnPV E6 transgenic mice does not depend on an activated H-ras oncogene...

..The high variability of these virus types suggests that additional primer combinations within the highly conserved region of the genome would detect a still higher rate of positive tumours...

..This suggests a helper effect of EBV infections in the replication of TTV. The present study provides information on a possible interaction of EBV and TTV in the etiology and progression of multiple sclerosis...

..These data indicate that the reduced bioavailability of p53 is a key-regulatory event in perturbation of CD95 signaling in HPV16 immortalized keratinocytes...

..In contrast, under conditions where tumor suppression was not accomplished upon somatic cell hybridization, neither expression of IRF-1, p48, and IFN-beta nor antiviral activity could be restored...

..These approaches should be combined with molecular epidemiology and molecular pathology to identify human carcinogens with more emphasis on evaluating combinations of suspect agents and mechanisms of action of epigenetic carcinogens...