Summary Human Papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the etiological agents of cervical cancer, and HPV-16 is the most prevalent type. Several HPVs require heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) for cell-binding. Here, we analyze the phenomenon that preincubation of HPV-16 with increasing concentrations of heparin results in partial restoration rather than more efficient inhibition of infection. While corroborating that the HSPGs are cell-binding receptors for HPV-16, heparin-preincubated virus bound to the extracellular matrix (ECM) via laminin-332. Furthermore, the interaction of virions with heparin, a representative of the highly sulfated S-domains of heparan sulfate (HS) chains of HSPGs, allowed HPV-16 infection in the absence of cell surface HSPGs. Therefore, we concluded that specific glycan moieties but not specific HSPG protein backbones are required for infection. The increased binding of an epitope-specific antibody to the viral capsid after heparin-binding suggested that initial conformational changes in the HPV-16 virion occur during infection by interaction with ‘heparin-like’ domains of cellular HSPGs. We propose that HS sequences with specific sulfation patterns are required to facilitate HPV-16 infection.

The entry of human papillomaviruses into host cells is a complex process. It involves conformational changes at the cell surface, receptor switching, internalization by a novel endocytic mechanism, uncoating in endosomes, trafficking of a subviral complex to the Golgi complex, and nuclear entry during mitosis. Here, we addressed how the stabilizing contacts in the capsid of human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) may be reversed to allow uncoating of the viral genome. Using biochemical and cell-biological analyses, we determined that the major capsid protein L1 underwent proteolytic cleavage during entry. In addition to a dispensable cathepsin-mediated proteolysis that occurred likely after removal of capsomers from the subviral complex in endosomes, at least two further proteolytic cleavages of L1 were observed, one of which was independent of the low-pH environment of endosomes. This cleavage occurred extracellularly. Further analysis showed that the responsible protease was the secreted trypsin-like serine protease kallikrein-8 (KLK8) involved in epidermal homeostasis and wound healing. Required for infection, the cleavage was facilitated by prior interaction of viral particles with heparan sulfate proteoglycans. KLK8-mediated cleavage was crucial for further conformational changes exposing an important epitope of the minor capsid protein L2. Occurring independently of cyclophilins and of furin that mediate L2 exposure, KLK8-mediated cleavage of L1 likely facilitated access to L2, located in the capsid lumen, and potentially uncoating. Since HPV6 and HPV18 also required KLK8 for entry, we propose that the KLK8-dependent entry step is conserved. IMPORTANCEOur analysis of the proteolytic processing of incoming HPV16, an etiological agent of cervical cancer, demonstrated that the capsid is cleaved extracellularly by a serine protease active during wound healing and that this cleavage was crucial for infection. The cleavage of L1 is one of at least four structural alterations that prime the virus extracellularly for receptor switching, internalization, and possibly uncoating. This step was also important for HPV6 and HPV18, which may suggest that it is conserved among the papillomaviruses. This study advances the understanding of how HPV16 initially infects cells, strengthens the notion that wounding facilitates infection of epidermal tissue, and may help the development of antiviral measures. Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) comprise a large family of small, nonenveloped DNA viruses with transforming potential. HPVs selectively infect basal keratinocytes of stratified skin and mucosal epithelia and persist, mostly without clinical symptoms, in virtually every part of the human skin. The biological costs of HPV persistence range from benign papilloma and genital warts over preneoplastic lesions to anogenital or oropharyngeal cancers (1). In fact, infection by the so-called "high-risk" HPV causes about 5% of all human cancers (2). Of these, cervical cancers are the most prevalent. However, HPV-associated oropharyngea...

Cui, Xue-Lin, Anna M. Schlesier, Elda L. Fisher, Carla Cerqueira, and Ronaldo P. Ferraris. Fructose-induced increases in neonatal rat intestinal fructose transport involve the PI3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 288: G1310 -G1320, 2005. First published February 3, 2005 doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00550.2004.-Expression of rat glucose transporter-5 (GLUT5) is tightly regulated during development. Expression and activity are low throughout the suckling and weaning stages, but perfusion of the small intestinal lumen with fructose solutions during weaning precociously enhances GLUT5 activity and expression. Little is known, however, about the signal transduction pathways involved in the substrate-induced precocious GLUT5 development. We found that wortmannin and LY-294002, inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) specifically inhibited the increase in fructose uptake rate and brushborder GLUT5 protein abundance but not GLUT5 mRNA abundance. Perfusion of EGF, an activator of PI3-kinase, also resulted in a marked wortmannin-inhibitable increase in fructose uptake. Perfusion of fructose for 4 h increased cytosolic immunostaining of phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate (PIP 3), the primary product of PI3-kinase, mainly in the mid-to upper-villus regions in which the brush-border membrane also stained strongly with GLUT5. Perfusion of glucose for 4 h had little effect on fructose or glucose uptake and PIP 3 or GLUT5 staining. SH-5, an Akt inhibitor, prevented the increase in fructose uptake and GLUT5 protein induced by fructose solutions, and had no effect on glucose uptake. The PI3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway may be involved in the synthesis and/or recruitment to the brush border of GLUT5 transporters by luminal fructose in the small intestine of weaning rats. Increases in fructose transport during the critical weaning period when rats are shifting to a new diet may be modulated by several signaling pathways whose cross talk during development still needs to be elucidated. development; glucose; intestine; epidermal growth factor; mucosa BECAUSE OF DRAMATIC INCREASES in consumption of soft drinks and fruit juices, per capita consumption of fructose in the United States has increased by 10 times in 30 yr to almost 60 g fructose per day (4, 39). Paralleling this remarkable increase in fructose consumption is an alarming increase in incidence of obesity and in prevalence of type II diabetes (4,14). What makes this correlation disturbing is that per capita fructose consumption in very young children has increased faster than that of the general population and in the 1980s was already ϳ30 -40 g fructose per day representing 10% of their energy intake (39). The top 10th percentile of subjects in all age groups typically consume approximately two times more fructose, exposing this particular age group (1-6 yr of age) to potential metabolic derangements caused by excessive fructose consumption. There are very few studies on physiological adaptations to excessive fructose consumpti...

Papillomavirus life cycle is tightly coupled to epithelial cell differentiation, which has hindered the investigation of many aspects of papillomavirus biology, including virion assembly. The development of in vitro production methods of papillomavirus pseudoviruses, and the production of “native” virus in raft cultures have facilitated the study of some aspects of the assembly process. In this paper we review the current knowledge of papillomavirus assembly, directions for future research, and the implications of these studies on new therapeutic interventions.