Doctors have uncovered the secrets of the elusive "wart" virus

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MOSCOW, Oct. 6 -. RIA Novosti The human immune system is actually ignores papillomavirus and gives it to multiply in papillomas and warts thanks to a special protein the E7, which inhibits the work of skin cells, signaling the presence of an infection, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

"Our study showed that the protein molecules E7 in themselves enough to disrupt the cells, usually makes the T-cells to fight viral infection This discovery also helps us to understand how the cells of cancer of the uterus possible to avoid the attention of the immune system. - they also contain the protein ", - says Marilyn Hibma (Merylyn Hibma) from the University of Otago (New Zealand).

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Papillomaviruses are among the most common infectious agents in the human body - the current statistics, about 60% of people in the world are infected with one or more strains of the virus.

In some cases the infection leads them to the formation of papillomas, and warts on the skin surface. If a person's immune system is unable to fight the virus, its penetration of the genitals sometimes leads to the development of cancer of the uterus, vagina, penis and other body parts. 

Hibma and her colleagues tried to find out how some of the most aggressive strains of papillomaviruses, which most often cause cervical cancer in women who can not make himself invisible to the immune system and live for years inside of warts and papillomas.

Studying these viruses, the so-called type 16 and 18, the researchers have paid attention to the fact that all cells of aggressive cancers that they generate, contain viral genes that are responsible for the assembly of two proteins - E6 and E7. This led them to suggest that these proteins can be linked to the question of why the immune system does not touch any cancer cells or the virus itself.

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They have tested this idea by grafting DNA segments responsible for the synthesis of these proteins in cells in the mouse ear. This act led to interesting consequences - a synthesis of "viral" proteins in the skin of mice resulted in the fact that it disappeared from the special cells - the so-called Langerhans cells. These cells are responsible for finding a possible "violators mode", including the virus, and their transport to the lymph nodes where the immune response produced to them. 

Interestingly, the E7 protein inhibits not only the calf Langerhans, but are themselves the T-cells responsible for the production of an immune response to pathogens. Why is this happening, scientists do not yet know, however, suppression of the synthesis of this protein, in principle, should lead to the restoration of the immune system and the beginning of the fight against papillomavirus or "products" of his activity as a cancer cell.

The researchers hope the data collected will help them understand how this suppression, and to create a cure for the most aggressive strains of the virus, which scientists believe today, cause not only cervical cancer but also many other cancers.