HPV induced R-loop formation represses innate immune gene expression while activating DNA damage repair pathways.

R-loops are trimeric nucleic acid structures that form when an RNA molecule hybridizes with its complementary DNA strand, displacing the opposite strand. These structures regulate transcription as well as replication, but aberrant R-loops can form, leading to DNA breaks and genomic instability if unresolved. R-loop levels are elevated in many cancers as well as cells that maintain high-risk human papillomaviruses. We investigated how the distribution as well as function of R-loops changed between normal keratinocytes and HPV positive cells derived from a precancerous lesion of the cervix (CIN I). The levels of R-loops associated with cellular genes were found to be up to 10-fold higher in HPV positive cells than in normal keratinocytes while increases at ALU1 elements increased by up to 500-fold. The presence of enhanced R-loops resulted in altered levels of gene transcription, with equal numbers increased as decreased. While no uniform global effects on transcription due to the enhanced levels of R-loops were detected, genes in several pathways were coordinately increased or decreased in expression only in the HPV positive cells. This included the downregulation of genes in the innate immune pathway, such as DDX58, IL-6, STAT1, IFN-ß, and NLRP3. All differentially expressed innate immune genes dependent on R-loops were also associated with H3K36me3 modified histones. Genes that were upregulated by the presence of R-loops in HPV positive cells included those in the DNA damage repair such as ATM, ATRX, and members of the Fanconi Anemia pathway. These genes exhibited a linkage between R-loops and H3K36me3 as well as γH2AX histone marks only in HPV positive cells. These studies identify a potential link in HPV positive cells between DNA damage repair as well as innate immune regulatory pathways with R-loops and γH2AX/H3K36me3 histone marks that may contribute to regulating important functions for HPV pathogenesis.

p53-dependent R-loop formation and HPV pathogenesis.

R-loops are trimeric RNA: DNA hybrids that are important physiological regulators of transcription; however, their aberrant formation or turnover leads to genomic instability and DNA breaks. High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the causative agents of genital as well as oropharyngeal cancers and exhibit enhanced amounts of DNA breaks. The levels of R-loops were found to be increased up to 50-fold in cells that maintain high-risk HPV genomes and were readily detected in squamous cell cervical carcinomas in vivo but not in normal cells. The high levels of R-loops in HPV-positive cells were present on both viral and cellular sites together with RNase H1, an enzyme that controls their resolution. Depletion of RNase H1 in HPV-positive cells further increased R-loop levels, resulting in impaired viral transcription and replication along with reduced expression of the DNA repair genes such as FANCD2 and ATR, both of which are necessary for viral functions. Overexpression of RNase H1 decreased total R-loop levels, resulting in a reduction of DNA breaks by over 50%. Furthermore, increased RNase H1 expression blocked viral transcription and replication while enhancing the expression of factors in the innate immune regulatory pathway. This suggests that maintaining elevated R-loop levels is important for the HPV life cycle. The E6 viral oncoprotein was found to be responsible for inducing high levels of R-loops by inhibiting p53's transcriptional activity. Our studies indicate that high R-loop levels are critical for HPV pathogenesis and that this depends on suppressing the p53 pathway.

Human papillomaviruses sensitize cells to DNA damage induced apoptosis by targeting the innate immune sensor cGAS.

The cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) is a critical regulator of the innate immune response acting as a sensor of double-strand DNAs from pathogens or damaged host DNA. Upon activation, cGAS signals through the STING/TBK1/IRF3 pathway to induce interferon expression. Double stranded DNA viruses target the cGAS pathway to facilitate infection. In HPV positive cells that stably maintain viral episomes, the levels of cGAS were found to be significantly increased over those seen in normal human keratinocytes. Furthermore the downstream effectors of the cGAS pathway, STING and IRF3, were fully active in response to signaling from the secondary messenger cGAMP or poly (dA:dT). In HPV positive cells cGAS was detected in both cytoplasmic puncta as well as in DNA damage induced micronuclei. E6 was responsible for increased levels of cGAS that was dependent on inhibition of p53. CRISPR-Cas9 mediated knockout of cGAS prevented activation of STING and IRF3 but had a minimal effect on viral replication. A primary function of cGAS in HPV positive cells was in response to treatment with etoposide or cisplatin which lead to increased levels of H2AX phosphorylation and activation of caspase 3/7 cleavage while having only a minimal effect on activation of homologous recombination repair factors ATM, ATR or CHK2. In HPV positive cells cGAS was found to regulate the levels of the phosphorylated non-homologous end-joining kinase, DNA-PK, which may contribute to H2AX phosphorylation along with other factors. Importantly cGAS was also responsible for increased levels of DNA breaks along with enhanced apoptosis in HPV positive cells but not in HFKs. This study identifies an important and novel role for cGAS in mediating the response of HPV positive cells to chemotherapeutic drugs.

Expression of HPV-induced DNA Damage Repair Factors Correlates With CIN Progression.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are DNA viruses with epithelial tropism. High-risk types of HPV are the causative agents of the majority of cervical cancers and are responsible for a number of other anogenital as well as oropharyngeal cancers. The life cycle of HPV is closely linked to the differentiation state of its host cell and is dependent on the activation of specific pathways of the DNA damage response. Several proteins from the ataxia telangiectasia mutated and the ataxia telangiectasia mutated and Rad3-related DNA repair pathways, which are essential for maintaining genomic stability in cells, are upregulated in HPV-positive cells and are required for viral replication. Our studies examine the expression of 5 such DNA repair factors-pCHK2, pCHK1, FANCD2, BRCA1, and H2AX-in cervical specimens from patients diagnosed with low-grade, intermediate-grade, or high-grade lesions. The percentage of cells expressing pCHK2, pCHK1, FANCD2, and BRCA1 is significantly higher in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions compared with that of either low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions or normal tissue, particularly in differentiated cell layers. In addition, the distribution of this staining throughout the epithelium is altered with increasing lesion grade. This study characterizes the expression of pCHK2, pCHK1, FANCD2, H2AX and BRCA1 during cervical cancer progression and provides additional insight into the role of these DNA damage response proteins in viral transformation.

Suppression of MicroRNA 424 Levels by Human Papillomaviruses Is Necessary for Differentiation-Dependent Genome Amplification.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) link their life cycle to epithelial differentiation and require activation of DNA damage pathways for efficient replication. HPVs modulate the expression of cellular transcription factors, as well as cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) to control these activities. One miRNA that has been reported to be repressed in HPV-positive cancers of the cervix and oropharynx is miR-424. Our studies show that miR-424 levels are suppressed in cell lines that stably maintain HPV 31 or 16 episomes, as well as cervical cancer lines that contain integrated genomes such as SiHa. Introduction of expression vectors for miR-424 reduced both the levels of HPV genomes in undifferentiated cells and amplification upon differentiation. Our studies show that the levels of two putative targets of miR-424 that function in DNA damage repair, CHK1 and Wee1, are suppressed in HPV-positive cells, providing an explanation for why this microRNA is targeted in HPV-positive cells.IMPORTANCE We describe here for the first time a critical role for miR-424 in the regulation of HPV replication. HPV E6 and E7 proteins suppress the levels of miR-424, and this is important for controlling the levels of CHK1, which plays a central role in viral replication.

Post-Transcriptional Regulation of KLF4 by High-Risk Human Papillomaviruses Is Necessary for the Differentiation-Dependent Viral Life Cycle.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are epithelial tropic viruses that link their productive life cycles to the differentiation of infected host keratinocytes. A subset of the over 200 HPV types, referred to as high-risk, are the causative agents of most anogenital malignancies. HPVs infect cells in the basal layer, but restrict viral genome amplification, late gene expression, and capsid assembly to highly differentiated cells that are active in the cell cycle. In this study, we demonstrate that HPV proteins regulate the expression and activities of a critical cellular transcription factor, KLF4, through post-transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms. Our studies show that KLF4 regulates differentiation as well as cell cycle progression, and binds to sequences in the upstream regulatory region (URR) to regulate viral transcription in cooperation with Blimp1. KLF4 levels are increased in HPV-positive cells through a post-transcriptional mechanism involving E7-mediated suppression of cellular miR-145, as well as at the post-translational level by E6-directed inhibition of its sumoylation and phosphorylation. The alterations in KLF4 levels and functions results in activation and suppression of a subset of KLF4 target genes, including TCHHL1, VIM, ACTN1, and POT1, that is distinct from that seen in normal keratinocytes. Knockdown of KLF4 with shRNAs in cells that maintain HPV episomes blocked genome amplification and abolished late gene expression upon differentiation. While KLF4 is indispensable for the proliferation and differentiation of normal keratinocytes, it is necessary only for differentiation-associated functions of HPV-positive keratinocytes. Increases in KLF4 levels alone do not appear to be sufficient to explain the effects on proliferation and differentiation of HPV-positive cells indicating that additional modifications are important. KLF4 has also been shown to be a critical regulator of lytic Epstein Barr virus (EBV) replication underscoring the importance of this cellular transcription factor in the life cycles of multiple human cancer viruses.

The Deacetylase Sirtuin 1 Regulates Human Papillomavirus Replication by Modulating Histone Acetylation and Recruitment of DNA Damage Factors NBS1 and Rad51 to Viral Genomes.

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) regulate their differentiation-dependent life cycles by activating a number of cellular pathways, such as the DNA damage response, through control of post-translational protein modification. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a protein deacetylase that modulates the acetylation of a number of cellular substrates, resulting in activation of pathways controlling gene expression and DNA damage repair. Our studies indicate that SIRT1 levels are increased in cells containing episomes of high-risk HPV types through the combined action of the E6 and E7 oncoproteins. Knockdown of SIRT1 in these cells with shRNAs impairs viral activities including genome maintenance, amplification and late gene transcription, with minimal effects on cellular proliferation ability. Abrogation of amplification was also seen following treatment with the SIRT1 deacetylase inhibitor, EX-527. Importantly, SIRT1 binds multiple regions of the HPV genome in undifferentiated cells, but this association is lost upon of differentiation. SIRT1 regulates the acetylation of Histone H1 (Lys26) and H4 (Lys16) bound to HPV genomes and this may contribute to regulation of viral replication and gene expression. The differentiation-dependent replication of high-risk HPVs requires activation of factors in the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) pathway and SIRT1 regulates the recruitment of both NBS1 and Rad51 to the viral genomes. These observations demonstrate that SIRT1 is a critical regulator of multiple aspects of the high-risk HPV life cycle.

Human papillomaviruses activate and recruit SMC1 cohesin proteins for the differentiation-dependent life cycle through association with CTCF insulators.

Human papillomaviruses infect stratified epithelia and link their productive life cycle to the differentiation state of the host cell. Productive viral replication or amplification is restricted to highly differentiated suprabasal cells and is dependent on the activation of the ATM DNA damage pathway. The ATM pathway has three arms that can act independently of one another. One arm is centered on p53, another on CHK2 and a third on SMC1/NBS1 proteins. A role for CHK2 in HPV genome amplification has been demonstrated but it was unclear what other factors provided important activities. The cohesin protein, SMC1, is necessary for sister chromatid association prior to mitosis. In addition the phosphorylated form of SMC1 plays a critical role together with NBS1 in the ATM DNA damage response. In normal cells, SMC1 becomes phosphorylated in response to radiation, however, in HPV positive cells our studies demonstrate that it is constitutively activated. Furthermore, pSMC1 is found localized in distinct nuclear foci in complexes with γ-H2AX, and CHK2 and bound to HPV DNA. Importantly, knockdown of SMC1 blocks differentiation-dependent genome amplification. pSMC1 forms complexes with the insulator transcription factor CTCF and our studies show that these factors bind to conserved sequence motifs in the L2 late region of HPV 31. Similar motifs are found in most HPV types. Knockdown of CTCF with shRNAs blocks genome amplification and mutation of the CTCF binding motifs in the L2 open reading frame inhibits stable maintenance of viral episomes in undifferentiated cells as well as amplification of genomes upon differentiation. These findings suggest a model in which SMC1 factors are constitutively activated in HPV positive cells and recruited to viral genomes through complex formation with CTCF to facilitate genome amplification. Our findings identify both SMC1 and CTCF as critical regulators of the differentiation-dependent life cycle of high-risk human papillomaviruses.

The acetyltransferase Tip60 is a critical regulator of the differentiation-dependent amplification of human papillomaviruses.

UNLABELLED: The life cycle of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is dependent upon differentiation of the infected host epithelial cell as well as activation of the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) DNA repair pathway that in normal cells acts to repair double-strand DNA breaks. In normal cells, following DNA damage the acetyltransferase Tip60 must acetylate ATM proteins prior to their full activation by autophosphorylation. E6 proteins have been shown to induce the degradation of Tip60, suggesting that Tip60 action may not be required for activation of the ATM pathway in HPV-positive cells. We investigated what role, if any, Tip60 plays in regulating the differentiation-dependent HPV life cycle. Our study indicates that Tip60 levels and activity are increased in cells that stably maintain complete HPV genomes as episomes, while low levels are seen in cells that express only HPV E6 and E7 proteins. Knockdown of Tip60 with short hairpin RNAs in cells that maintain HPV episomes blocked ATM induction and differentiation-dependent genome amplification, demonstrating the critical role of Tip60 in the viral life cycle. The JAK/STAT transcription factor STAT-5 has previously been shown to regulate the phosphorylation of ATM. Our studies demonstrate that STAT-5 regulates Tip60 activation and this occurs in part by targeting glycogen synthase kinase 3ß (GSK3ß). Inhibition of either STAT-5, Tip60, or GSK3ß blocked differentiation-dependent genome amplification. Taken together, our findings identify Tip60 to be an important regulator of HPV genome amplification whose activity during the viral life cycle is controlled by STAT-5 and the kinase GSK3ß. IMPORTANCE: Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the etiological agents of cervical and other anogenital cancers. HPVs regulate their differentiation-dependent life cycle by activation of DNA damage pathways. This study demonstrates that HPVs regulate the ATM DNA damage pathway through the action of the acetyltransferase Tip60. Furthermore, the innate immune regulator STAT-5 and the kinase GSK3ß mediate the activation of Tip60 in HPV-positive cells. This study identifies critical regulators of the HPV life cycle.

The JAK-STAT transcriptional regulator, STAT-5, activates the ATM DNA damage pathway to induce HPV 31 genome amplification upon epithelial differentiation.

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) must evade innate immune surveillance to establish persistent infections and to amplify viral genomes upon differentiation. Members of the JAK-STAT family are important regulators of the innate immune response and HPV proteins downregulate expression of STAT-1 to allow for stable maintenance of viral episomes. STAT-5 is another member of this pathway that modulates the inflammatory response and plays an important role in controlling cell cycle progression in response to cytokines and growth factors. Our studies show that HPV E7 activates STAT-5 phosphorylation without altering total protein levels. Inhibition of STAT-5 phosphorylation by the drug pimozide abolishes viral genome amplification and late gene expression in differentiating keratinocytes. In contrast, treatment of undifferentiated cells that stably maintain episomes has no effect on viral replication. Knockdown studies show that the STAT-5ß isoform is mainly responsible for this activity and that this is mediated through the ATM DNA damage response. A downstream target of STAT-5, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) contributes to the effects on members of the ATM pathway. Overall, these findings identify an important new regulatory mechanism by which the innate immune regulator, STAT-5, promotes HPV viral replication through activation of the ATM DNA damage response.

Human papillomaviruses modulate microRNA 145 expression to directly control genome amplification.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) modulate expression of host microRNAs. Our deep-sequencing analysis of organotypic raft cultures identified microRNA 145 (miR-145) as a differentiation-dependent microRNA that has functionally active target sequences in the HPV-31 E1 and E2 open reading frames. Overexpression of miR-145 in HPV-positive cells resulted in reduced genome amplification and late gene expression, along with decreased levels of cellular transcription factor KLF-4. Our studies show that HPV modulates miR-145 expression to control its own life cycle.

The role of human papillomaviruses in oncogenesis.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the causative agents of cervical and other anogenital as well as oral cancers. Approximately fifty percent of virally induced cancers in the USA are associated with HPV infections. HPVs infect stratified epithelia and link productive replication with differentiation. The viral oncoproteins, E6, E7, and E5, play important roles in regulating viral functions during the viral life cycle and also contribute to the development of cancers. p53 and Rb are two major targets of the E6 and E7 oncoproteins, but additional cellular proteins also play important roles. E5 plays an auxiliary role in contributing to the development of cancers. This review will discuss the various targets of these viral proteins and what roles they play in viral pathogenesis.

Human papillomaviruses recruit cellular DNA repair and homologous recombination factors to viral replication centers.

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) activate the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent DNA damage response to induce viral genome amplification upon epithelial differentiation. Our studies show that along with members of the ATM pathway, HPV proteins also localize factors involved in homologous DNA recombination to distinct nuclear foci that contain HPV genomes and cellular replication factors. These studies indicate that HPV activates the ATM pathway to recruit repair factors to viral genomes and allow for efficient replication.

An interaction between human papillomavirus 16 E2 and TopBP1 is required for optimum viral DNA replication and episomal genome establishment.

In human papillomavirus DNA replication, the viral protein E2 forms homodimers and binds to 12-bp palindromic DNA sequences surrounding the origin of DNA replication. Via a protein-protein interaction, it then recruits the viral helicase E1 to an A/T-rich origin of replication, whereupon a dihexamer forms, resulting in DNA replication initiation. In order to carry out DNA replication, the viral proteins must interact with host factors that are currently not all known. An attractive cellular candidate for regulating viral replication is TopBP1, a known interactor of the E2 protein. In mammalian DNA replication, TopBP1 loads DNA polymerases onto the replicative helicase after the G(1)-to-S transition, and this process is tightly cell cycle controlled. The direct interaction between E2 and TopBP1 would allow E2 to bypass this cell cycle control, resulting in DNA replication more than once per cell cycle, which is a requirement for the viral life cycle. We report here the generation of an HPV16 E2 mutant compromised in TopBP1 interaction in vivo and demonstrate that this mutant retains transcriptional activation and repression functions but has suboptimal DNA replication potential. Introduction of this mutant into a viral life cycle model results in the failure to establish viral episomes. The results present a potential new antiviral target, the E2-TopBP1 interaction, and increase our understanding of the viral life cycle, suggesting that the E2-TopBP1 interaction is essential.

The fanconi anemia pathway limits human papillomavirus replication.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) deregulate epidermal differentiation and cause anogenital and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). The E7 gene is considered the predominant viral oncogene and drives proliferation and genome instability. While the implementation of routine screens has greatly reduced the incidence of cervical cancers which are almost exclusively HPV positive, the proportion of HPV-positive head and neck SCCs is on the rise. High levels of HPV oncogene expression and genome load are linked to disease progression, but genetic risk factors that regulate oncogene abundance and/or genome amplification remain poorly understood. Fanconi anemia (FA) is a genome instability syndrome characterized at least in part by extreme susceptibility to SCCs. FA results from mutations in one of 15 genes in the FA pathway, whose protein products assemble in the nucleus and play important roles in DNA damage repair. We report here that loss of FA pathway components FANCA and FANCD2 stimulates E7 protein accumulation in human keratinocytes and causes increased epithelial proliferation and basal cell layer expansion in the HPV-positive epidermis. Additionally, FANCD2 loss stimulates HPV genome amplification in differentiating cells, demonstrating that the intact FA pathway functions to restrict the HPV life cycle. These findings raise the possibility that FA genes suppress HPV infection and disease and suggest possible mechanism(s) for reported associations of HPV with an FA cohort in Brazil and for allelic variation of FA genes with HPV persistence in the general population.

Suppression of STAT-1 expression by human papillomaviruses is necessary for differentiation-dependent genome amplification and plasmid maintenance.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) infect stratified epithelia to establish persistent infections that maintain low-copy-number episomes in infected basal cells. Amplification of viral genomes occurs upon keratinocyte differentiation, followed by virion synthesis. During persistent HPV infections, viral proteins act to evade surveillance by both innate and adaptive immune responses. One of the primary pathways regulating the innate immune response is the JAK/STAT pathway. Our studies indicate that the expression of STAT-1, but not other members of interferon (IFN)-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF-3) complex such as STAT-2 and IFN regulatory factor 9 (IRF9), is selectively suppressed by HPV proteins at the level of transcription. Both E6 and E7 oncoproteins independently suppress the expression of STAT-1, and mutational analyses indicate that the E6 targeting E6-associated protein (E6AP) is responsible for suppression. The levels of STAT-1 proteins increase upon differentiation of both normal and HPV-positive cells but are still significantly reduced in the latter cells. Transient restoration of STAT-1 levels in HPV-positive cells using recombinant retroviruses significantly impaired viral amplification upon differentiation while long-term increases abrogated maintenance of episomes. Similarly, increased levels of STAT-1 induced by gamma interferon treatment inhibited HPV genome amplification upon differentiation. Overall, our findings demonstrate that suppression of STAT-1 expression by HPV proteins is necessary for genome amplification and maintenance of episomes, suggesting an important role for this activity in viral pathogenesis.

p63 is necessary for the activation of human papillomavirus late viral functions upon epithelial differentiation.

The late phase of the human papillomavirus (HPV) life cycle is linked to epithelial differentiation, and we investigated the factors that regulate this process. One potential regulator is p63, a member of the p53 family of proteins, which modulates epithelial development, as well as proliferation capability, in stem cells. In this study, we examined the role of p63 in the HPV life cycle using a lentiviral knockdown system for p63. In epithelial cells, the ΔN truncated isoforms of p63 predominate, while the full-length TA isoforms are present at very low levels. Upon the differentiation of normal keratinocytes, p63 levels rapidly decreased while higher levels were retained in HPV-positive cells. Our studies indicate that reducing p63 levels in differentiated HPV-positive cells resulted in the loss of viral genome amplification and late gene expression. p63 regulates the expression of cell cycle regulators, and we determined that cyclin A, cyclin B1, cdk1, and cdc25c were reduced in p63-deficient, HPV-positive keratinocytes, which suggests a possible mechanism of action. In addition, activation of the DNA repair pathway is necessary for genome amplification, and the expression of two members, BRCA2 and RAD51, was altered in the absence of p63 in HPV-positive cells. Our studies indicate that p63 is necessary for the activation of differentiation-dependent HPV late viral functions and provide insights into relevant cellular targets.

Nuclear accumulation of the papillomavirus E1 helicase blocks S-phase progression and triggers an ATM-dependent DNA damage response.

Replication of the papillomavirus genome is initiated by the assembly of a complex between the viral E1 and E2 proteins at the origin. The E1 helicase is comprised of a C-terminal ATPase/helicase domain, a central domain that binds to the origin, and an N-terminal regulatory region that contains nuclear import and export signals mediating its nucleocytoplasmic shuttling. We previously reported that nuclear accumulation of E1 has a deleterious effect on cellular proliferation which can be prevented by its nuclear export. Here we have shown that nuclear accumulation of E1 from different papillomavirus types blocks cell cycle progression in early S phase and triggers the activation of a DNA damage response (DDR) and of the ATM pathway in a manner that requires both the origin-binding and ATPase activities of E1. Complex formation with E2 reduces the ability of E1 to induce a DDR but does not prevent cell cycle arrest. Transient viral DNA replication still occurs in S-phase-arrested cells but surprisingly is neither affected by nor dependent on induction of a DDR and of the ATM kinase. Finally, we provide evidence that a DDR is also induced in human papillomavirus type 31 (HPV31)-immortalized keratinocytes expressing a mutant E1 protein defective for nuclear export. We propose that nuclear export of E1 prevents cell cycle arrest and the induction of a DDR during the episomal maintenance phase of the viral life cycle and that complex formation with E2 further safeguards undifferentiated cells from undergoing a DDR when E1 is in the nucleus.

The E7 open reading frame acts in cis and in trans to mediate differentiation-dependent activities in the human papillomavirus type 16 life cycle.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the causative agents of several important genital and other mucosal cancers. The HPV16 E7 gene encodes a viral oncogene that is necessary for the continued growth of cancer cells, but its role in the normal, differentiation-dependent life cycle of the virus is not fully understood. The function of E7 in the viral life cycle was examined using a series of mutations of E7 created in the context of the complete HPV16 genome. The effect of these E7 mutations on key events of the viral life cycle, including immortalization, episomal maintenance, late promoter activation, and infectious virion synthesis, was examined. Our studies show that the pRb binding domain is indispensable for early viral activities, whereas the C-terminal zinc finger domain contributed primarily to very late events. Mutations of the casein kinase II phosphorylation site caused a complex phenotype involving both the function of E7 protein and a cis element necessary for the activation of the late promoter, identifying for the first time a promoter element important for late promoter function in the context of the viral genome. All mutant genomes tested showed reduced viral titers following growth in organotypic raft cultures. These studies clarify the role of E7 as a regulator of late events in the differentiation-dependent HPV life cycle.

Human papillomaviruses modulate expression of microRNA 203 upon epithelial differentiation to control levels of p63 proteins.

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) link their life cycles to epithelial differentiation and induce productive replication of viral DNA in suprabasal cells. Viral-DNA amplification requires cells to remain active in the cell cycle upon differentiation. This is in contrast to normal cells, which lose proliferative capability upon differentiation. One factor that negatively regulates proliferative capability upon differentiation is microRNA 203 (miR-203), which is expressed primarily in suprabasal epithelial cells. Although HPVs do not encode their own microRNAs (miRNAs), they modulate expression of cellular miRNAs to regulate the activities of cellular proteins. We show that the HPV E7 protein downregulates miR-203 expression upon differentiation, which may occur through the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase/protein kinase C (PKC) pathway. One target of miR-203 is the p63 family of transcription factors, and we demonstrate that HPV-positive cells maintain significantly higher levels of these factors upon differentiation than do normal keratinocytes. Several downstream targets of p63, CARM-1, p21, and Bax, were also increased in E7-expressing cells, and their levels were inversely correlated with amounts of miR-203. Introduction of expression vectors for miR-203 into keratinocytes that stably maintain HPV episomes resulted in short-term elevation of HPV genome copy numbers, but these were rapidly lost upon subsequent passage. When HPV-positive cells expressing high levels of miR-203 were induced to differentiate in methylcellulose, impaired genome amplification was observed. We conclude that high levels of miR-203 are inhibitory to HPV amplification and that HPV proteins act to suppress expression of this microRNA to allow productive replication in differentiating cells.