This prevents the virus from multiplying and chronic infection. Stem cells damaged by long-term inflammation or smoking and aged by frequent division can be treated by them until they mutate into cancer cells, they explain in the “International Journal of Cancer”.
A team led by Martin Widschwendter from the Research Institute for Biomedical Aging Research at the University of Innsbruck examined tissue samples from cervical screenings to see what happens to the women’s cells when they are infected with HPV and under what circumstances they degenerate into cancer cells. According to the researchers, “epigenetic” markings in the genome are decisive for this, which determine when and to what extent the various genes are used.
This “epigenome” is set up in healthy women so that the presence of HPV in the cervical cells triggers programmed cell death, they write in a release: “Since the virus can only survive inside human cells, it is eliminated by the death of infected cells. “
However, in women whose stem cells in the cervix have already frequently divided, the ability to commit suicide has apparently been lost due to changes in the epigenome, the researchers report: “HPV can further damage such cells and trigger changes that can lead to the development of cervical cancer over months and years to lead.”
Unhealthy habits such as smoking and chronic inflammation also change the stem cells for the worse, they explain: “Our results confirm that HPV vaccination reduces the risk of cervical cancer.” It protects once morest chronic infection with the virus, which triggers over 90 percent of cancer cases. Not smoking also prevents cervical cancer.
