The incidence of HPV infection in sexually active young college women is high. The short duration of most HPV infections in these women suggests that the associated cervical dysplasia should be managed conservatively.

We present an expansion of the classification of the family Papillomaviridae, which now contains 29 genera formed by 189 papillomavirus (PV) types isolated from humans (120 types), non-human mammals, birds and reptiles (64, 3 and 2 types, respectively). To accommodate the number of PV genera exceeding the Greek alphabet, the prefix “dyo” is used, continuing after the Omega-PVs with Dyodelta-PVs. The current set of human PVs are contained within five genera, whereas mammalian, avian and reptile PVs are contained within 20, 3 and 1 genera, respectively. We propose standardizations to the names of a number of animal PVs. As prerequisite for a coherent nomenclature of animal PVs, we propose founding a Reference Center for Animal PVs. We discuss that based on emerging species concepts derived from genome sequences, PV types could be promoted to the taxonomic level of species, but do not recommend implementing this change at the current time.

No abstract

Blood polymorphonuclear neutrophils provide immune protection against pathogens but also may promote tissue injury in inflammatory diseases1,2. Although neutrophils are generally considered as a relatively homogeneous population, evidence for heterogeneity is emerging3,4. Under steady-state conditions, neutrophil heterogeneity may arise from ageing and the replenishment by newly released neutrophils from the bone marrow5. Aged neutrophils up-regulate CXCR4, a receptor allowing their clearance in the bone marrow6,7, with feedback inhibition of neutrophil production via the IL17/G-CSF axis8, and rhythmic modulation of the haematopoietic stem cell niche5. The aged subset also expresses low levels of L-selectin (CD62L)5,9. Previous studies have suggested that in vitro-aged neutrophils exhibit impaired migration and reduced pro-inflammatory properties6,10. Here, we show using in vivo ageing analyses that the neutrophil pro-inflammatory activity correlates positively with their ageing in the circulation. Aged neutrophils represent an overly active subset exhibiting enhanced αMβ2 integrin (Mac-1) activation and neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation under inflammatory conditions. Neutrophil ageing is driven by the microbiota via Toll-like receptors (TLRs)- and myeloid differentiation factor 88 (Myd88)-mediated signalling pathways. Depletion of the microbiota significantly reduces the number of circulating aged neutrophils and dramatically improves the pathogenesis and inflammation-related organ damage in models of sickle cell disease or endotoxin-induced septic shock. These results thus identify an unprecedented role for the microbiota in regulating a disease-promoting neutrophil subset.

Amongst the human papillomaviruses (HPVs), the genus Alphapapillomavirus contains HPV types that are uniquely pathogenic. They can be classified into species and types based on genetic distances between viral genomes. Current circulating infectious HPVs constitute a set of viral genomes that have evolved with the rapid expansion of the human population. Viral variants were initially identified through restriction enzyme polymorphisms and more recently through sequence determination of viral fragments. Using partial sequence information, the history of variants, and the association of HPV variants with disease will be discussed with the main focus on the recent utilization of full genome sequence information for variant analyses. The use of multiple sequence alignments of complete viral genomes and phylogenetic analyses have begun to define variant lineages and sublineages using empirically defined differences of 1.0–10.0% and 0.5–1.0%, respectively. These studies provide the basis to define the genetics of HPV pathogenesis.