Treating Cervical Cancer by Silencing HPV-18 E6 and E7 genes. COOL!

So these guys from Shantou University Medical College, in China. Were able to reduce growth rate and even induce apoptosis on HeLa cells, by silencing the human papillomavirus type

18 (HPV-18) E6 and E7 oncogenes using RNA interference (RNAi). It's pretty common knowledge that HPV is a double stranded DNA virus in the papillomaviridae DUH! Whats not common knowledge are the early (E1, E2, E3, E4, E6, and E7) late (L1 and L2) proteins that HPV synthesizes associated with cancer. These awesome dudes and chicks from Shantou University were able to silence the genes that express two of the eight genes (E6 and E7) that are crucial in the carcinogenicity of HPV. According to the article "...HPV E6 and E7 genes exert their transforming properties, by binding, directly or indirectly, to cellular proteins linked with cell growth regulation. The most important of these

proteins for the E6 and E7 genes are p53 and retinoblastoma (pRb), respectively..."(Qi, et. al.,697). So p53 and pRb are one of the main tumor suppressing cells in mammals, and when E6 and E7 binds to them, respectively, then the person is pretty much screwed, with nothing suppressing transformed cells from unregulated proliferation.

Like a boss, these guys were able to use RNA interference, which for those that have not taken virology, is the use of microRNA's and small interfering (siRNA) that binds to the mRNA, and this can inhibit translation. The results indicate that they were able to knock down expressions of HPV-18 E6 and E7 with the pGS-E6,pGS-E7, and pGS-(E6+E7) vectors, which contains the siRNA, after 72 h of transfection. They also were able to conclude that expression of E6 and E7 proteins of HPV decreased dramatically, as well as apoptosis of tumors have increased.

If I had a time machine, I would travel back in time to save Henrietta With this technique.

The figures below compares tumor cells apoptosis. Figure A show no silencing. Figure B shows E6 silencing, Figure C shows E7 Silencing, and Figure D shows Both E6 and E7 silencing. One can see that silencing either E6 or E7 induces apoptosis, and silencing both induces greater rate of apoptosis.

the authors of this article were: Zongli Qi, Xijin Xu, Bao Zhang, Yan Li, Junxiao Liu, Songjian Chen, Gangjian Chen, and Xia Huo.

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