{"title":"The impact of gut microbiota on leukemia and prospects for novel therapies","authors":"Saba Jalalifar , Bahar Bajelan , Reihane Mohammadi , Roya Ghafoury , Zahra Kalhori , Kamran Pooshang-Bagheri , Reza Nekouian , Mohammad Faranoush","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100239","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100239","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Human Microbiome Project has underscored the pivotal role of the gut microbiome in human health, revealing its potential influence on leukemia development, progression, and treatment response. This review summarizes evidence on microbiome-targeted therapies such as probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, antimicrobial peptides, and nanoparticles. These approaches may improve leukemia treatment outcomes through immune and metabolic modulation and reduced toxicity. Although emerging data suggest beneficial effects, most findings remain correlative and limited by small, heterogeneous studies. Further mechanistic and clinical research is required to clarify causal pathways, standardize interventions, and evaluate long-term safety. Personalized microbiome-based strategies that integrate molecular and immunologic profiling may ultimately refine leukemia management and improve survival.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100239"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147379985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2025.100232
Marwan Osman , Rayane Rafei , Kevin J. Cummings , Wassim Rafei , Joseph Awada , Hayssam Moubayed , Farah Majzoub , Hassan Mallat , Fouad Dabboussi , Monzer Hamze
{"title":"Antimicrobial resistance and virulence patterns of Helicobacter pylori among patients with suspected peptic ulcer disease in disenfranchised settings","authors":"Marwan Osman , Rayane Rafei , Kevin J. Cummings , Wassim Rafei , Joseph Awada , Hayssam Moubayed , Farah Majzoub , Hassan Mallat , Fouad Dabboussi , Monzer Hamze","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100232","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100232","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The epidemiology of <em>Helicobacter pylori</em> in Lebanon is underreported. We aimed to estimate the infection proportion, clarithromycin resistance, and virulence determinants of <em>H. pylori</em> among symptomatic patients with suspected peptic ulcers in Tripoli, North Lebanon.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Eighty-seven patients undergoing routine endoscopy screening for peptic ulcers were selected. Culture and Allplex™ <em>H. pylori</em> and ClariR Assay were performed. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for clarithromycin, tetracycline, levofloxacin, and rifampicin was performed using the E-test method. The virulence factors (<em>cagA, vacA, dupA, iceA1, iceA2</em>, and <em>oipA</em>) were screened and/or typed by PCR.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Overall, 32.2 % (28/87) of the patients were found to be infected with <em>H. pylori</em>. Five isolates were resistant to clarithromycin, associated with specific point mutations of A2143G (4/5) or A2142C (1/5). The <em>vacA</em> was found in all tested isolates, with s2m2 being the predominant <em>vacA</em> genotype. The 3′ end variable region of <em>cagA</em> was identified in 44.4% of isolates, where <em>cagA</em> typing indicated their belonging to Western types. The other virulence determinants were <em>dupA</em> (77.8%), <em>iceA1</em> (61.1%), <em>oipA</em> (55.6%), and <em>iceA2</em> (50%).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Our findings demonstrate the circulation of <em>H. pylori</em> among symptomatic patients with suspected peptic ulcers in Lebanon, characterized by a rich and diverse pool of virulence genes and the emergence of resistance to clarithromycin and levofloxacin. Large-scale surveillance is crucial for quantifying the burden of <em>H. pylori</em> infection, monitoring antimicrobial resistance trends, and ensuring timely updates to eradication treatment policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145940567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2026.100236
Tianyi Feng , Yu Huang , Chunyan Luo
{"title":"SpecFlu-Net: A frequency-aware neural architecture with temporal-dependency optimization for long-term seasonal influenza transmission forecasting","authors":"Tianyi Feng , Yu Huang , Chunyan Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100236","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100236","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Seasonal influenza poses severe global health and economic burdens, demanding reliable long-term (3–6 months) forecasts for proactive public-health interventions. However, influenza surveillance data exhibits four key idiosyncrasies—quasi-periodicity with drifting phase, sharp asymmetric peaks, collinear seasonal exogenous drivers, and temporal inconsistency in non-autoregressive (NAR) decoding-that existing methods address in isolation, lacking a unified solution.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We propose SpecFlu-Net, a lightweight frequency-aware neural architecture for long-term influenza transmission forecasting. It integrates two core components: (1) a frequency-domain encoder, which lifts historical incidence data to the complex frequency domain via learnable discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to preserve phase information (critical for peak timing) and denoise signals through energy compaction; (2) an NAR decoding framework enhanced by temporal-dependency tuning (TDT) loss, which penalizes deviations between predicted and ground-truth first differences and adaptively balances training focus between absolute accuracy and epidemic shape. Theoretically, the complex-valued multi-layer perceptron (MLP) layer in SpecFlu-Net equals a time-domain global convolution (ensuring interpretability and parameter efficiency), and TDT loss prevents gradient flow into historical data for stable training.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Evaluations on three real-world influenza datasets across 3–24 weeks horizons show SpecFlu-Net outperforms state-of-the-art baselines consistently.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>SpecFlu-Net provides a unified solution to influenza data challenges, delivering epidemiologically coherent long-term forecasts to support proactive public health, and is adaptable to other seasonal infectious diseases.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Novel use of oral delafloxacin monotherapy in staphylococcal prosthetic valve endocarditis: A case report","authors":"Antonio Mastroianni, Valeria Vangeli, Giuliana Guadagnino, Luciana Chidichimo, Lavinia Berardelli, Sonia Greco","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100235","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100235","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Delafloxacin (DLFX), a new anionic fluoroquinolone, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of bacterial skin and skin structure infections and by the FDA for community-acquired pneumonia. This report describes a novel use of DFX as oral monotherapy in the treatment of staphylococcal prosthetic endocarditis. Prospective data would be useful to identify future opportunities for the use of this new fluoroquinolone in endocarditis both as monotherapy and for oral use,to simplify antibiotic regimen and to improve patients' quality of life and adherence to therapy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-31DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2025.100230
Yu-Hong Yang , Ji-Xu Li , Rui-Chen Wang , Qi-Kai Yin , Shi-Hong Fu , Kai Nie , Qian-Qian Cui , Song-Tao Xu , Qiang Wei , Fan Li , Xing-Zhou Li , Huan-Yu Wang
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Isolation and characterization of a novel coltivirus from Haemaphysalis concinna ticks in Northeastern China” [Infectious Medicine 4 (2025) 100179]","authors":"Yu-Hong Yang , Ji-Xu Li , Rui-Chen Wang , Qi-Kai Yin , Shi-Hong Fu , Kai Nie , Qian-Qian Cui , Song-Tao Xu , Qiang Wei , Fan Li , Xing-Zhou Li , Huan-Yu Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100230","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100230","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100230"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145869409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-23DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2026.100241
Amos Cahan , Nadav Sorek , Tal Brosh-Nissimov
{"title":"Quantitative association of blood culture volume with contaminant and pathogen recovery","authors":"Amos Cahan , Nadav Sorek , Tal Brosh-Nissimov","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100241","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100241","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Blood culture contamination is common and associated with adverse outcomes. The relation between blood culture volume and contamination remains under-evaluated. We assess the relation between blood culture volume and commensal-positive culture rate and characterize the relative abundance of contaminant species in low- and high-volume samples.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Analysis of blood cultures processed between August 2017 and August 2023 in an academic community hospital. Blood culture bottles containing 0–10 mL of fluid were included. Clinical data was not available. Contaminants were defined according to the National Healthcare Safety Network list of common commensals. The association between blood volume categories and the proportion of positive cultures was assessed using a linear logistic regression model. Goodness of fit was evaluated by restricted cubic splines and likelihood ratios.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Of a total of 146,307 blood culture bottles, 8,918 were excluded. A positive relation between blood volume and culture-positivity rate was found for both pathogens and contaminants, with an increase in odds ratio for culture positivity of 1.033 (95% CI: 1.026–1.041, <em>p</em> < 0.001) and 1.030 (95% CI: 1.018–1.041, <em>p</em> < 0.001) for each additional 1 mL for pathogens and contaminants, respectively. This translates to a 10 per 1000 excess cultures growing contaminants comparing 10 to 2 mL bottles. <em>Cutibacterium</em> was over-represented in high-volume samples. Otherwise, differences in relative abundance between the two volume categories were nonsignificant.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The positive association between contaminant growth and blood volume may result from better growth conditions in high volume samples, or suggest that in some cases, contaminant growth may reflect frank bacteremia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147379739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2026.100238
Bogdan Cireașă , Géraldine Leguelinel-Blache , Bob-Valéry Occéan , Chris Serrand , Jean-Marie Kinowski , Florent Dubois
{"title":"Interventions to improve pneumococcal vaccination coverage: A systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Bogdan Cireașă , Géraldine Leguelinel-Blache , Bob-Valéry Occéan , Chris Serrand , Jean-Marie Kinowski , Florent Dubois","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100238","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100238","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div><em>Streptococcus pneumoniae</em> is a widely spread human pathogen that can cause infections as severe as meningitis. The pneumococcal vaccination is the optimal approach to prevent morbidity and mortality, but the vaccination coverage is low despite several attempts to improve it. This meta-analysis assesses the impact of the interventions to increase vaccination coverage.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A meta-analytic review and a mixed-effects meta-regression on articles between 2013 and 2023 from PubMed, Web of Science and ScienceDirect that assessed the impact of interventions on pneumococcal vaccination coverage was performed. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and comparative non-RCTs, and excluded reviews, non-comparative or retrospective studies, as well as the ones for which the full text was not available or did not present raw data on vaccination. A subgroup analysis was performed by study design, intervention type, facilitator and population characteristics.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>16 articles were included out of 349 across three databases. Ten were RCTs and six were non-RCTs. Nine were from the USA, three from France and one from China, Zimbabwe, Singapore and Turkey respectively. Seven studies had physicians and four had pharmacists as facilitators. Most described direct interventions such as education and reminders. Ten focused on at-risk patients. The pooled relative risk (RR) was (1.06 [1.00, 1.13], <em>p</em> = 0.04), with an <em>I</em><sup>2</sup> of 17.05%. RCTs reported significantly lower effect sizes compared to non-RCTs (−0.69), <em>p</em> = 0.02. Indirect interventions showed lower effect sizes (−0.45, <em>p</em> = 0.06). Pharmacist-led interventions showed a positive, almost significant effect (0.43, <em>p</em> = 0.07).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This meta-analysis offers valuable insights into the factors that influence pneumococcal vaccination coverage and serves as a guide for the development of more effective and targeted strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2026.100237
Chang Song , Chunyan Zhao , Dan Luo , Aichun Huang , Chaoyan Xu , Jieqing Zhong , Yujie Mo , Zhentao Huang , Xiaoshi Lin , Zhouhua Xie , Qingdong Zhu
{"title":"The diagnostic value of Xpert detection combined with nanopore sequencing for tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS patients","authors":"Chang Song , Chunyan Zhao , Dan Luo , Aichun Huang , Chaoyan Xu , Jieqing Zhong , Yujie Mo , Zhentao Huang , Xiaoshi Lin , Zhouhua Xie , Qingdong Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100237","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2026.100237","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of death in HIV/AIDS patients, where diagnosis is complicated by atypical presentation and paucibacillary disease. Current diagnostic methods have limitations in speed or sensitivity. This study evaluates the diagnostic value of rapid, portable nanopore sequencing for TB in this high-risk population.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Clinical data and diagnostic results were collected from 59 HIV/AIDS patients with suspected tuberculosis. The diagnostic performance of nanopore sequencing was compared with AFB staining, TB-DNA testing, Xpert, and solid mycobacterial culture, including sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), Kappa coefficient, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Additionally, this study further evaluated the diagnostic performance of nanopore sequencing in combination with AFB staining, TB-DNA testing, Xpert, and culture methods.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Nanopore sequencing showed the highest performance among all methods, with a sensitivity of 60.50%, specificity of 90.50%, PPV of 92.00%, NPV of 55.90%, and AUC of 0.76. When used in combination with other methods, nanopore sequencing and Xpert achieved the best diagnostic performance, with a sensitivity of 71.10%, specificity of 85.70%, PPV of 90.00%, NPV of 62.10%, Kappa value of 0.523, and an AUC of 0.78.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The combination of nanopore sequencing and Xpert demonstrates excellent diagnostic performance for diagnosing TB in HIV/AIDS patients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"5 1","pages":"Article 100237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146038350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-02DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2025.100214
Ippei Sakamaki , Yukie Tanaka , Hiromichi Iwasaki
{"title":"Combination of minocycline and ciprofloxacin enhances the inhibitory effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated THP-1 monocytic cells","authors":"Ippei Sakamaki , Yukie Tanaka , Hiromichi Iwasaki","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100214","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100214","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Tetracyclines, such as minocycline (MINO), are widely used in the treatment of infectious diseases. Japanese spotted fever (JSF) is usually treated with MINO. When MINO alone is ineffective in treating severe cases of JSF with complications, patients can be successfully treated with tetracycline combined with a quinolone such as ciprofloxacin (CPFX). However, the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of combination therapies remain unclear. We focused on cytokine suppression caused by antimicrobial agents.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>THP-1 cells (2 × 10<sup>5</sup>/mL) were stimulated with 0.1 µg/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and various concentrations of CPFX, MINO, or CPFX+MINO. TNF-α levels in the supernatant were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after 4 h of stimulation.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>MINO or CPFX alone significantly inhibited TNF-α and chemokine production, and their combination exerted an even greater inhibitory effect than either drug alone.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Combination therapy with MINO and CPFX enhanced the inhibitory effects on inflammatory cytokine and chemokine production <em>in vitro</em>. This combination therapy is expected to provide both antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects. Enhanced cytokine modulation by antibiotics may be a key mechanism in the treatment of severe infectious diseases such as JSF.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"4 4","pages":"Article 100214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145579422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Infectious MedicinePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-20DOI: 10.1016/j.imj.2025.100222
Tahereh Pakdel , Mohammad Kargar , Ali Farhadi , Mahdokht Hossein Aghdaei , Leila Kohan
{"title":"MCPyV small T antigen enhances HPV16 oncogene expression, promotes Ca Ski cell proliferation, and reduces 5-fluorouracil-induced apoptosis in cervical cancer cells","authors":"Tahereh Pakdel , Mohammad Kargar , Ali Farhadi , Mahdokht Hossein Aghdaei , Leila Kohan","doi":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.imj.2025.100222","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Cervical cancer is primarily associated with persistent infection by high-risk human papillomaviruses (HR-HPVs), whose oncoproteins modulate key cellular pathways involved in proliferation and apoptosis. Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) has also been detected in cervical tissues, and its small T (sT) protein shares functional similarities with HR-HPV oncoproteins, suggesting a potential role in tumorigenesis.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This study investigated whether MCPyV sT reduces 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced apoptosis and influences HPV16 oncogene expression and proliferation in Ca Ski cells. The MCPyV sT gene was cloned into a mammalian expression vector, transfected into Ca Ski cells, and confirmed by western blotting. Cytotoxicity assays assessed the effects of MCPyV sT on 5-FU-treated cells, while RT-qPCR quantified viral oncogene expression. Annexin V/PI flow cytometry and Ki-67 immunostaining were used to evaluate apoptosis and proliferation.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>MCPyV sT expression enhanced cell viability, increased the IC50 of 5-FU, and significantly reduced 5-FU-induced apoptosis. It also markedly upregulated HPV <em>E5</em> and <em>E6/E7</em> mRNA levels (<em>p</em> < 0.001) and promoted proliferation. The combined presence of MCPyV sT and HPV oncoproteins synergistically increased resistance to 5-FU-induced apoptosis, oncogene expression, and cell growth.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings underscore the potential cooperative effects of viral oncoproteins from distinct viruses in driving therapeutic resistance, highlighting the need for further research into their molecular interactions to inform targeted cervical cancer treatments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100667,"journal":{"name":"Infectious Medicine","volume":"4 4","pages":"Article 100222"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145693815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}