John T. Schiller

Preventive Human Papillomavirus Vaccines

Prophylactic vaccines against infectious diseases are among the most successful and cost effective public health interventions ever devised. They have led to the eradication of small pox and will likely soon lead to the eradication of polio. Prophylactic vaccination has also effectively controlled other infectious diseases, including rubella, mumps, tetanus, and diphtheria (Ulmer and Liu, 2002). Perhaps the most important implication of the establishment of sexually transmitted HPV infection as the central cause of cervical cancer (Bosch et al., 2002) is the potential for cervical cancer prevention through prophylactic vaccination against the oncogenic HPVs. This chapter will focus on the development of vaccines to prevent infection and neoplastic disease by oncogenic HPV types that infect the genital tract. However, similar vaccines are being developed to prevent infection by the non-oncogenic types that are largely responsible for genital warts.

Transforming Genes of Bovine and Human Papillomaviruses

Papillomaviruses (PVs) induce benign epithelial tumors in their natural hosts. The best-characterized members of this virus group are the human papillomaviruses (HPV), bovine papillomaviruses (BPV), and cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV). PVs have also been isolated from many other mammals, as well as from birds. More than 50 different HPV genotypes have now been identified [1–3].