What is it about?

A new approach to fighting human papillomavirus infections in human cell and tissue culture, with broad-spectrum activity against HPV16, 18, and 31, and no observed cytotoxicity. HPV DNA levels were measured by qPCR and checked with Southen blots.

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Why is it important?

There is no good drug treatment for high-risk HPV, yet such a drug could prevent cervical and other cancers. The compounds reported here and their activities show great promise as the first examples of promising candidates for anti-high risk HPV candidates.

Perspectives

Since this work, we have found that viral DNA is cut within hours of adding our compounds to cell culture media and that the expression of DNA damage response genes is altered only in cells that contain viral episomes, or complete circular genomes. The compounds have no effect on cells with integrated viral DNA. Therefore, they appear to be good candidates for early intervention in HPV infections. We anticipate their use as topical agents.

Professor James Keane Bashkin
University of Missouri-St. Louis

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This page is a summary of: HPV episome levels are potently decreased by pyrrole–imidazole polyamides, Antiviral Research, August 2011, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2011.05.014.
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