Association between HPV E6 protein and expression of proteins in Np63 family

Abstract

Cervical cancer is an important health care problem of women worldwide. Infection with high risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) was the commonest incidence. High risk HPV E6 protein plays the critical roles in tumor development. Np63 isotypes are p63 proteins in p53 family which lacks NH2-terminal domain. The previous studies suggested that Np63 variants showed the opposite function to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Np63 related to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and may increase the severity of cervical cancer when working with HPV E6 protein. In this study the stable cell lines expressing both Np63 isotypes and HPV E6 proteins were generated by transfection. The transfected cells were selection with appropriate drugs. Cell death detection and cell proliferation assays were performed. HPV16E6, Np63 and Np63 showed ability to inhibit apoptosis induced by camptothecin while HPV16E6 and Np63 played the role in cell proliferation. This study suggested that Np63 isotypes played role in the ability of either apoptosis or proliferation of cells. In association with HPVE6, the efficiency of Np63 increased.