Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a major global health issue. HPV infection is a well-established cause of cervical cancer and a relevant factor in other anogenital cancers as well as head and neck cancers. One common denominator of the HPV genotypes is the E6 and E7 proteins, which are mainly responsible for malignant and non-malignant phenotypes.  Hence, they represent valuable targets for therapeutic intervention in HPV-driven cancers as no specific therapies are available till date. Our research group has identified a new therapeutic strategy to eliminate the E6 and E7 oncogenes. Based on the discovered strategy, we have developed several anti-HPV compounds, with anisomelic acid (AA) as the mother compound and a whole line of synthetic derivatives.  We found that these compounds target HPV by depleting E6 and E7 oncogenes with exceptionally high specificity to the infected cells.  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on a successful therapeutic strategy to specifically target HPV. We are currently studying detailed mechanism of the compounds degrading the oncoproteins, E6 & E7. Understanding the mechanisms by which E6 and E7 are degraded will provide insights that will advance our knowledge for targeting HPV cancers. We are also assessing the efficacy of AA and its derivatives in HPV lesions found in transgenic HPV mice model and using this mice model can help us in assessing the efficacy of our targeting therapy in preventing or formation of the HPV tumors. On the other hand, our another ongoing adventurous project  is establishing  a novel dual-targeting therapeutic strategy, that targets both the unique E6 and E7 -dependent features and the general stress protection machinery to eliminate HPV-driven cancers. More about the research can be found at https://hpvhorizon.com/

Driven by the market need in the treatment of HPV-associated warts, our research team had developed a natural ointment/cream targeting HPV-driven warts.  This innovative product is based on anti-HPV diterpenoid compound AA and other related compounds isolated from a traditional medicinal plant. This led to a University based spin-off, Anison Therapeutics which was established in 2021 to further take the product through regulatory pathway to the market.  The details about the startup can be found in the following link:  https://anisontherapeutics.com/