Landscape of oncoviral genotype and co-infection via human papilloma and hepatitis B viral tumor in situ profiling

• Main Authors: Adrian Bubie, Fabien Zoulim, Barbara Testoni, Brett Miles, Marshall Posner, Augusto Villanueva, Bojan Losic
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-04-01
• Series: iScience
• Subjects: Genomics; Virology; Cancer
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221003369

Summary: The role of oncoviral genotype and co-infection driving oncogenesis remains unclear. We have developed a scalable, high throughput tool for sensitive and precise oncoviral genotype deconvolution. Using tumor RNA sequencing data, we applied it to 537 virally infected liver, cervical, and head and neck tumors, providing the first comprehensive integrative landscape of tumor-viral gene expression, viral antigen immunogenicity, patient survival, and mutational profiling organized by tumor oncoviral genotype. We find that HBV and HPV genotype and co-infection serve as significant predictors of patient survival and immune activation. Finally, we demonstrate that HPV genotype is more associated with viral oncogene expression than cancer type, implying that expression may be similar across episomal and stochastic integration-based infections. While oncoviral infections are known risk factors for oncogenesis, viral genotype and co-infection are shown to strongly associate with disease progression, patient survival, mutational signatures, and putative tumor neoantigen immunogenicity, facilitating novel clinical associations with infections.