Oligonucleotide Applications for the Therapy and Diagnosis of Human Papillomavirus Infection

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the best known example of a common human malignancy with a proven infectious etiology. Clinical, epidemiological and molecular analyses have long indicated that persistent infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is causally associated with cervical cancer. Although new prophylactic vaccines and highly sensitive HPV typing methods are currently available, cervical cancer continues as the most common tumor in developing countries, where most of the annual half a million new cases occur (Arbyn et al., 2011). Besides socio-cultural issues restraining professional gynecological care, the relatively high cost of these technologies has limited their availability where they are most needed. Thus, there is a pressing need for affordable and readily available detection and therapeutic tools for HPV infection and cervical cancer. In the last two decades, novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches based on synthetic oligonucleotides and genomic information have developed into promising tools to fight human disease.