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Immune evasion mechanisms of human papillomavirus: An update
Author(s) -
Steinbach Alina,
Riemer Angelika B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.31027
Subject(s) - evasion (ethics) , immune system , immunology , cervical cancer , antigen , biology , human papillomavirus , hpv infection , epitope , disease , virology , dysplasia , cancer , medicine , genetics , pathology
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most frequently sexually transmitted agent in the world. It can cause cervical and other anogenital malignancies, and oropharyngeal cancer. HPV has the unique ability to persist in the host's epithelium for a long time—longer than most viruses do—which is necessary to complete its replication cycle. To this end, HPV has developed a variety of immune evasion mechanisms, which unfortunately also favor the progression of the disease from infection to chronic dysplasia and eventually to cancer. This article summarizes the current knowledge about HPV immune evasion strategies. A special emphasis lies in HPV‐mediated changes of the antigen processing machinery, which is generating epitopes for T cells and contributes to the detectability of infected cells.