These observations validated the specificity of E6 and E7 activities. In addition, HPV18 E7 had a stronger positive effect than HPV18 E6 on the expression of miR-16 and miR-378, whereas both viral oncoproteins functioned similarly in inducing a moderate increase of miR-92a expression (Fig. 3). Interestingly, miR-22, miR-27a, miR-29a, and miR-100 were all moderately down-regulated by either E6 or E7, with miR-22 and miR-27a being slightly more susceptible to E7 than to E6 (Fig. 3).
