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Identification of host transcriptional networks showing concentration-dependent regulation by HPV16 E6 and E7 proteins in basal cervical squamous epithelial cells.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Smith, Stephen P 
Scarpini, Cinzia G 
Groves, Ian J 
Odle, Richard I 

Abstract

Development of cervical squamous cell carcinoma requires increased expression of the major high-risk human-papillomavirus (HPV) oncogenes E6 and E7 in basal cervical epithelial cells. We used a systems biology approach to identify host transcriptional networks in such cells and study the concentration-dependent changes produced by HPV16-E6 and -E7 oncoproteins. We investigated sample sets derived from the W12 model of cervical neoplastic progression, for which high quality phenotype/genotype data were available. We defined a gene co-expression matrix containing a small number of highly-connected hub nodes that controlled large numbers of downstream genes (regulons), indicating the scale-free nature of host gene co-expression in W12. We identified a small number of 'master regulators' for which downstream effector genes were significantly associated with protein levels of HPV16 E6 (n = 7) or HPV16 E7 (n = 5). We validated our data by depleting E6/E7 in relevant cells and by functional analysis of selected genes in vitro. We conclude that the network of transcriptional interactions in HPV16-infected basal-type cervical epithelium is regulated in a concentration-dependent manner by E6/E7, via a limited number of central master-regulators. These effects are likely to be significant in cervical carcinogenesis, where there is competitive selection of cells with elevated expression of virus oncoproteins.

Description

Keywords

Cervix Uteri, Epithelial Cells, Female, Gene Regulatory Networks, Human papillomavirus 16, Humans, Models, Biological, Oncogene Proteins, Viral, Papillomavirus E7 Proteins, Repressor Proteins, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

6

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Cancer Research UK (Programme Grant A13080)