New Perspectives in Therapeutic Vaccines for HPV: A Critical Review

Abstract

Human Papillomavirus is the main cause of cervical cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, anus, rectum, penis, vagina, and vulva. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to control HPV-induced diseases using either prophylactic or therapeutic approaches. A critical review of the literature about the therapeutic Human Papillomavirus vaccine was performed to analyze its efficacy in the treatment of female lower genital tract lesions and its possible perspective application in clinical practice. The most important medical databases were consulted, and all papers published from 2000 until 2021 were considered. We retrieved a group of seven papers, reporting the role of anti HPV therapeutic vaccines against the L2 protein in the order of their efficacy and safety in female lower genital tract disease. In addition, the immune response due to vaccine administration was evaluated. The development of therapeutic vaccines represents an interesting challenge for the treatment of HPV infection of the lower genital tract. Literature data underline that the L2 protein may be an interesting and promising target in the development of therapeutic HPV vaccines, but the possible strengths and the unclear longevity of L2 immune responses are factors to be considered before clinical use.

Keywords: CIN; Human Papillomavirus; therapeutic vaccine.

Figure 1

HPV genome structure (left) and the HPV pathway of infection and neoplastic transformation of cervical epithelial cells with the possible application of therapeutic vaccines (right). Legend: URR: Upstream Regulatory Region; E: early protein; L: late protein. Figure created with BioRender.com (accessed on 15 February 2022).

Figure 2

PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process.