Rol of the human papilloma virus in the development of cervical cancer

The present narrative review was conducted to investigate and to compile information about the physiopathology of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and the viral mechanisms of infection of the host's cells, as well as how the virus survives the host's innate immunological mechanisms and the mechanisms to produce cervical benign and malignant lesions. Literature searches were performed electronically in PubMed, Medline, ISI, DOAJ, Spring-er, Embase. Web of Knowledge, DOAJ, y Google Scholar, Hinari, JAMA Network, Oxford Academic and Research Life for original articles written in English and Scielo, Lantidex, Imbiomed-L, Redalyc, and Google Scholar for original articles written in Spanish. The searches included the keywords (MESH): physiopathol-ogy of HPV, HPV viral cycle, Carcinogenesis of HPV, HPV genomic structure, infection mechanism, and HPV taxonomy. Publications from January 1985 to August 2021 were reviewed. This narrative review allows us to understand how HPV produces productive and non-productive infection in the cells of the strati-fied squamous epithelium of the human being, especially that of the cervix, ex-plains how infection by the virus can produce benign lesions and malignant le-sions and explains why they are classified as HPV-HR and HPV-LR, according to their oncogenic capacity. These processes have made it possible to understand the behavior of the virus and establish primary treatment for the prevention of cervical cancer.