Católica, at the forefront of communication for prevention, highlights International HPV Awareness Day

The Faculty of Dental Medicine (FMD) of Católica, received an honourable mention in the contest Communication of Science in Microbiology, promoted by the Portuguese Society of Microbiology (SPM).

The highlighted project, "HPV: Sex, Cancer and Prevention", resulted from a creative process carried out by two professors from FMD, Raquel M. Silva and Ana Sofia Duarte, and by the illustrator Sara Costa. All committed to research projects in the Interdisciplinary Health Research Centre of the University, they have dedicated part of their mission to the Communication of Science, in order to make scientific knowledge accessible to all.

This recent creation had as its motto the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). The HPV infection is the most common sexually transmitted infection and some subtypes of HPV are high risk for the development of cervical cancer, genital cancer and oral cancer.

In this initiative, the authors simplify the HPV infection mechanism, which integrates its genetic material into the DNA of human cells to produce viral proteins, and explain that some of these proteins (oncoproteins E6 and E7) interfere with human tumour suppressor proteins, resulting in uncontrolled cell proliferation (malignant transformation of cells).

The International HPV Awareness Day, established by the International Papillomavirus Society and celebrated on March 4, is an important milestone as it aims to draw attention to the infection caused by HPV. "HPV: Sex, Cancer and Prevention" was also created to actively participate in prevention and early diagnosis, promoting vaccination against high-risk subtypes of HPV, condom use and periodic cervical cancer screening.