HPV (human papillomavirus) infection is widely known to induce cancer. But new research has found that many of the mutations that cause virally-induced cancer are caused by a family of genes that normally combats viral infections – genes from the ‘APOBEC’ family, which held to fight off viral infection, actually cause mutations that led to HPV-associated cancer. [s]Health-Canal[/s] reports that this raises the possibility of developing drugs to regulate the activity of these genes to prevent HPV-associated cancers from developing and reduce the ability for existing cancers to evolve resistance to tumours.
[link url=http://www.healthcanal.com/infections/51689-our-own-treacherous-immune-genes-can-cause-cancer-after-viral-infection.html]Full Health-Canal report[/link]
[link url=http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(14)00387-8]Cell article summary[/link]