HPV and cervical carcinoma: Signaling and clinical responses to interferons

Funded Activity Summary

Cervical carcinoma and its treatment continues to be an important health concern in Australia. The interferons comprise an elaborate system of natural substances produced in the body, one of whose functions is to prevent cancer cells from developing. The interferons have been widely used to treat human diseases including viral infections and cancers caused by the wart virus. However, results of recent work indicates that viruses like the wart virus, HPV, have developed ways of inhibiting its effectiveness. We have found that cervical carcinoma cells and virally infected cells resist the direct anti-cancer and anti-viral effects of interferons because they have abnormalities in their ability to respond to interferon. We have made good progress in understanding why these cells do not respond to the interferons. In particular they show a deficiency in the activity of cell proteins required to transmit the interferon signal inside the cells. The current proposal will allow us to gain a greater understanding of the processes inside cells that are taken over by the wart viral proteins and the reasons for its abnormality in interferon resistant cancer cells. We will determine whether the levels of certain genes in clinical samples from patients relates to their response to interferon treatment. This may allow us to establish a test to predict which patients will respond to interferon therapy, saving patients from ineffective treatment, side effects and cost. This study will have a broad significance to many human diseases where abnormalities in interferon signaling occur and will help to bring about the necessary changes in cell properties to overcome the abnormalities, restore the responses and improve the application of interferons to treat infectious diseases and perhaps other cancers as well.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2002

End Date: 01-01-2004

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $534,480.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Applied immunology (incl. antibody engineering xenotransplantation and t-cell therapies)

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Stat1 | cancer | cervical carcinoma | interferon signaling | papilloma virus | regulation of gene expression | viral warts

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