When defense turns into attack: Antiviral cytidine deaminases linked to somatic mutagenesis in HPV-associated cancer

Stephen Henderson; Ankur Chakravarthy; Tim Fenton

doi:10.4161/mco.29914

When defense turns into attack: Antiviral cytidine deaminases linked to somatic mutagenesis in HPV-associated cancer

Mol Cell Oncol. 2014 Aug 13;1(1):e29914. doi: 10.4161/mco.29914. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Stephen Henderson¹, Ankur Chakravarthy², Tim Fenton²

Affiliations

¹ Bill Lyons Informatics Centre; UCL Cancer Institute; University College London; London, UK.
² Department of Oncology; UCL Cancer Institute; University College London; London, UK.

Abstract

The APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases play an important role in innate immunity but have also emerged as mediators of somatic mutations in human cancer. We recently reported a high incidence of APOBEC-mediated driver mutations in human papillomavirus-associated cancer, suggesting a key role for these enzymes in the development of such tumors.

Keywords: APOBEC; HPV; PIK3CA; cancer; mutagenesis.