Why does HPV Infect Squamous Epithelial Cells and Not Others? I've seen this question about HPV and the reference therein. The link states "Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a DNA virus that presents tropism for epithelial cells, causing infections of the skin and mucous membranes. Replication of HPV occurs in the nuclei of squamous cells and its life cycle is directly related to the differentiation program of the host cell. " Why does HPV infect squamous epithelial cells and not others, what are the major differences? And why can't that difference be used to provide medication?

The answer usually lies in whether the cell of interest expresses the correct receptor.

Check this:

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This excerpt from that review explains why:

"Although both the α6β4 and α6β1 heterodimer were capable of binding VLPs in vitro, only the former was supposed to function as a HPV receptor, which was concluded from the results that the α6 subunit associated preferentially with the β4 in epithelial cells [12], and the α6β4 complex was expressed exclusively in the basal cellular layer of the stratified squamous epithelium [13], which was presumably the only site of productive PV infection"