Human papilloma virus: global research architecture assessed by density-equalizing mapping

Human papillomavirus associated cervical lesion: pathogenesis and therapeutic interventions

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most prevalent sexually transmitted virus globally. Persistent high-risk HPV infection can result in cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer, with 70% of cervical cancer cases associated with high-risk types HPV16 and 18. HPV infection imposes a significant financial and psychological burden. Therefore, studying methods to eradicate HPV infection and halt the progression of precancerous lesions remains crucial. This review comprehensively explores the mechanisms underlying HPV-related cervical lesions, including the viral life cycle, immune factors, epithelial cell malignant transformation, and host and environmental contributing factors. Additionally, we provide a comprehensive overview of treatment methods for HPV-related cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer. Our focus is on immunotherapy, encompassing HPV therapeutic vaccines, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and advanced adoptive T cell therapy. Furthermore, we summarize the commonly employed drugs and other nonsurgical treatments currently utilized in clinical practice for managing HPV infection and associated cervical lesions. Gene editing technology is currently undergoing clinical research and, although not yet employed officially in clinical treatment of cervical lesions, numerous preclinical studies have substantiated its efficacy. Therefore, it holds promise as a precise treatment strategy for HPV-related cervical lesions.

Knowledge and Perceptions of Greek Students about Human Papilloma Virus, Vaccination and Cervical Cancer Screening

INTRODUCTION

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer; the level of HPV-related knowledge among young students remains however questionable. The purpose of the present study was to investigate knowledge pertaining to HPV, cervical cancer screening, and vaccination among students in the Nursing Department and Department of Social Work of the Hellenic Mediterranean University of Crete, Greece.

METHODS

This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study involving 371 first-year and third-year students of the two Departments. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analysis was performed to examine factors associated with knowledge related to HPV, cervical cancer screening, and HPV vaccination.

RESULTS

Only 22.1% of students knew all the ways of HPV transmission and only 5.9% knew the whole spectrum of cancers that HPV could cause. The vaccination rate for HPV was 33.7%. The majority of students used the Internet as the main source of information (62.3%). Students' sociodemographic characteristics, including age, marital status, and Department of studies were associated with knowledge about HPV.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study highlights knowledge gaps and indicates the need for thorough health education strategies on HPV, targeting families and young people.

Designing of multi-epitope chimeric vaccine using immunoinformatic platform by targeting oncogenic strain HPV 16 and 18 against cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer and reaches an alarming stage. HPVs are considered the main causative agents for cervical cancer and other sexually transmitted infections across the globe. Currently, three prophylactic vaccines are available against HPV infections with no therapeutic values. Due to a lack of effective therapeutic and prophylactic measures, the HPV infection is spreading in an uncontrolled manner. Next-generation of vaccine is needed to have both prophylactic and therapeutic values against HPV. Here first time we have designed a multi-epitope chimeric vaccine using the most oncogenic strain HPV 16 and HPV 18 through an immunoinformatic approach. In this study, we have used the L1, E5, E6 and E7 oncoproteins from both HPV 16 and HPV 18 strains for epitope prediction. Our recombinant chimeric vaccine construct consists, selected helper and cytotoxic T cell epitopes. Our computational analysis suggests that this chimeric construct is highly stable, non-toxic and also capable of inducing both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses. Furthermore, in silico cloning of the multi-epitope chimeric vaccine construct was done and the stabilization of the vaccine construct is validated with molecular dynamics simulation studies. Finally, our results indicated that our construct could be used for an effective prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine against HPV.

Current and future direction in treatment of HPV-related cervical disease

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the world. About 70% of cervical cancers are caused by the most oncogenic HPV genotypes of 16 and 18. Since available prophylactic vaccines do not induce immunity in those with established HPV infections, the development of therapeutic HPV vaccines using E6 and E7 oncogenes, or both as the target antigens remains essential. Also, knocking out the E6 and E7 oncogenes in host genome by genome-editing CRISPR/Cas system can result in tumor growth suppression. These methods have shown promising results in both preclinical and clinical trials and can be used for controlling the progression of HPV-related cervical diseases. This comprehensive review will detail the current treatment of HPV-related cervical precancerous and cancerous diseases. We also reviewed the future direction of treatment including different kinds of therapeutic methods and vaccines, genome-editing CRISPR/Cas system being studied in clinical trials. Although the progress in the development of therapeutic HPV vaccine has been slow, encouraging results from recent trials showed vaccine-induced regression in high-grade CIN lesions. CRISPR/Cas genome-editing system is also a promising strategy for HPV cancer therapy. However, its safety and specificity need to be optimized before it is used in clinical setting.

Global cervical cancer research: A scientometric density equalizing mapping and socioeconomic analysis

Cervical cancer has caused substantial morbidity and mortality for millions of women over the past decades. While enormous progress has been made in diagnosis, prevention and therapy, the disease is still fatal for many women—especially in low-income countries. Since no detailed studies are available on the worldwide research landscape, we here investigated the global scientific output related to this cancer type by an established protocol. The “New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science” platform assessed all relevant cervical cancer research published in the Web of Science since 1900. A detailed analysis was conducted including country-specific research productivity, indicators for scientific quality, and relation of research activity to socioeconomic and epidemiologic figures. Visualization of data was generated by the use of density equalizing map projections. Our approach identified 22,185 articles specifically related to cervical cancer. From a global viewpoint, the United States of America was the dominating country in absolute numbers, being followed by China and Japan. By contrast, the European countries Sweden, Austria, and Norway were positioned first when the research activity was related to the population number. When the scientific productivity was related to annual cervical cancer cases, Scandinavian countries (Finland #1, Sweden #4, Norway #5, Denmark #7), the Alpine countries Austria (#2) and Switzerland (#6), and the Netherlands (#3) were leading the field. Density equalizing mapping visualized that large parts of Africa and South America were almost invisible regarding the global participation in cervical cancer research. Our data documented that worldwide cervical cancer research activity is continuously increasing but is imbalanced from a global viewpoint. Also, the study indicated that global and public health aspects should be strengthened in cervical carcinoma research in order to empower more countries to take part in international research activities.

Cervical cancer in low and middle-income countries

Cervical cancer is a malignant tumour that occurs in the cervix and is classified into two histological types, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); SCC is more common and accounts for 70% of all cases. In 2018 there were ~569,000 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed worldwide and ~311,000 deaths were attributed to cervical cancer. Of these, between 84 and 90% occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as South Africa, India, China and Brazil. The most common cause of cervical cancer is persistent infection caused by the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus. Other factors that contribute to the incidence of cervical cancer include geography, traditional practices and beliefs, the screening levels, socioeconomic status, healthcare access, public awareness, use of oral contraceptives, smoking and co-infection with HIV. An estimated 11 million women from LMICs will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the next 10-20 years. The aim of this review was to explore various types of genetic and epigenetic factors that influence the development, progression or suppression of cervical cancer.

Needlestick injuries: a density-equalizing mapping and socioeconomic analysis of the global research

Background

Needlestick injuries have caused a deleterious effect on the physical and mental health of millions of health-care workers over the past decades, being responsible for occupational infections with viruses such as HIV or hepatis C. Despite this heavy burden of disease, no concise studies have been published on the global research landscape so far.

Methods

We used the New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science platform to analyze global NSI research (n = 2987 articles) over the past 115 years using the Web of Science and parameters such as global versus country-specific research activities, semi-qualitative issues, and socioeconomic figures.

Results

Density-equalizing mapping showed that although a total of n = 106 countries participated in NSI research, large parts of Africa and South America were almost invisible regarding global participation in NSI research. Average citation rate (cr) analysis indicated a high rate for Switzerland (cr = 25.1), Italy (cr = 23.5), and Japan (cr = 19.2). Socioeconomic analysis revealed that the UK had the highest quotient Q_GDP of 0.13 NSI-specific publications per bill. US-$ gross domestic product (GDP), followed by South Africa (Q_GDP = 0.12). Temporal analysis of HIV versus hepatitis research indicated that NSI-HIV research culminated in the early 1990s, whereas NSI-hepatitis research increased over the observed period from the 1980s until the last decade.

Conclusion

Albeit NSI research activity is generally increasing, the growth is asymmetrical from a global viewpoint. International strategies should be followed that put a focus on NSI in non-industrialized areas of the world.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00420-020-01547-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Development of HPV16,18,31,45 E5 and E7 peptides-based vaccines predicted by immunoinformatics tools

Objectives

Viral oncoproteins are ideal targets in therapeutic vaccines for functional inhibition of human papillomaviruses (HPVs). Herein, we designed the peptide constructs derived from E5 and E7 oncoproteins of high-risk HPV types 16, 18, 31 and 45 using the bioinformatics tools and investigated their potency in mice.

Results

The framework of the combined in silico/in vivo analysis included (1) to determine physicochemical properties of the designed constructs, (2) to identify potential IFN-γ-inducing epitopes, (3) to assess allergenicity, (4) to recognize linear and discontinuous B cell epitopes using modeling and validation of 3D structure of the designed constructs, and (5) to evaluate immune responses and tumor growth in vivo. Our in silico data determined high potency of the HPV_16,18,31,45 E5 and HPV_16,18,31,45 E7 peptides for trigger B- and T-cell responses, and IFN-γ secretion. In vivo study indicated that the mixture of E5 and E7 immunodominant peptides from four types of high-risk HPV could induce Th1 immune response, and protect completely mice against TC-1 tumor cells.

Conclusion

Generally, the combined in silico/in vivo approaches showed the ability of the designed E5 and E7 peptide constructs from four major high-risk HPV types for development of therapeutic vaccines.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s10529-020-02792-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

New quality and quantity indices in science (NewQIS): results of the first decade-project progress review

Strategies employing information science and scientometric approaches were introduced to science policy and management over the past decades. As a rapidly evolving field, new bibliometric parameters are proposed and discussed continuously and the fields also benefits from the introduction of novel visualization techniques. The present article summarizes the experiences with a platform that combines geographical mapping with scientometrics. It was established between 2005 and 2008 at the Charité in Berlin and termed “New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science” (NewQIS), consisting of the integration of common scientometric parameters such as the h-index and novel visualization techniques including density equalizing mapping. NewQIS was used to assess socio-economic important fields of medicine and sciences. Within NewQIS studies, research activities, citation patterns and their relation to socio-economic figures were analyzed with regard to time periods, countries, continents or even single cities. Within the decade after its establishment, more than 80 NewQIS articles were peer-reviewed and published. Being a non-funded low budget project, it was used by many medical students to conduct their MD thesis. The narrow technical frame led to the chance of a comparison of research output between different fields of science. This article summarizes NewQIS 1.0 activities, discusses its limits and gives a look into the future of NewQIS 2.0 with a target of 200 evaluated entities of the biomedical field of sciences.