Catálogo de Investigaciones | 2013-2014

59 CATÁLOGO DE INVESTIGACIONES | AÑO ACADÉMICO 2013 -2014 Structural and Functional Bioinformatics Analysis of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) E6 and E7 Proteins Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most widespread sexually transmitted virus in the USA. With over 150 different types identified, HPV may cause warts (common, plantar, anogenital), anal lesions, genital cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, and other conditions. Fifteen types are “high risk” and may become carcinogenic, causing cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and vulvar- penile or anal intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN, PIN and AIN, respectively). Unfortunately, it remains to be elucidated how and why a few HPV strains lead to cancers while most do not even though both “high- ” and “low risk” types can cause abnormal cell growth. Previous research has shown that HPV proteins E6 and E7 of carcinogenic strains inactivate the tumor suppressor proteins p53 and pRb. The aim of this investigation is to perform a structural and functional comparative bioinformatics analysis of twenty E6 and E7 in carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic HPV types. Results show that the proteins share significant sequential homology. De novo tertiary structure predictions with I-TASSER and ROBETTA have shown greater variability due to the presence multiple loops and poorly structured regions in several proteins. Proteins with substantial undefined regions were analyzed for disordered regions and found that only the sequence termini have structurally undefined regions. Cancerous and non-cancerous proteins of the same type that are structurally homologous are currently being studied for differences that may explain functional differences. The results of this investigation should aid in the understanding of the carcinogenic nature of HPV. taisha martínez departamento de química mentor: dra. mónica m. arroyo cabán bioinformatics protein structure protein function hpv