APOBEC3A possesses anticancer and antiviral effects by differential inhibition of HPV E6 and E7 expression on cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide and is the leading cause of deaths in developing countries. Persistent infections with a subset of HPVs, called "high-risk HPVs", including HPV16 and HPV18, are the primary cause of cervical cancer. The apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) family of proteins is a group of cellular enzymes that catalyze the deamination of cytidine (C) to uracil (U) in single-stranded DNA/RNA, and functions as antiviral factors in the innate immune system of the host. Recent studies have shown that APOBEC3A could restrict certain DNA viruses, including HPVs. In this study, we confirmed that the expression of APOBEC3A was decreased in cervical cancer tissues. Furthermore, APOBEC3A inhibited the cervical cells proliferation, migration as well as invasion, and promoted apoptosis depend on cytidine deaminase. In addition, APOBEC3A decreased HPV16-E6, HPV16-E7 and HPV18-E6 depend on cytidine deaminase, but no effect on HPV18-E7. Therefore, we believe that, in cervical cancer cells, the expression of APOBEC3A possesses anticancer and antiviral effects by differential inhibition of HPV E6 and E7 expression depend on cytidine deaminase.