BackgroundCervical carcinoma (CC) is a leading cause of death among women worldwide. Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a major etiological factor in CC and HPV 16 is the more frequent viral type present. Our aim was to characterize metabolic pathways altered in HPV 16 tumor samples by means of transcriptome wide analysis and bioinformatics tools for visualizing expression data in the context of KEGG biological pathways.ResultsWe found 2,067 genes significantly up or down-modulated (at least 2-fold) in tumor clinical samples compared to normal tissues, representing ~3.7% of analyzed genes. Cervical carcinoma was associated with an important up-regulation of Wnt signaling pathway, which was validated by in situ hybridization in clinical samples. Other up-regulated pathways were those of calcium signaling and MAPK signaling, as well as cell cycle-related genes. There was down-regulation of focal adhesion, TGF-β signaling, among other metabolic pathways.ConclusionThis analysis of HPV 16 tumors transcriptome could be useful for the identification of genes and molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of cervical carcinoma. Understanding the possible role of these proteins in the pathogenesis of CC deserves further studies.

Background: The aetiological relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer (CC) is widely accepted. Our goal was to determine the prevalence of HPV types in Mexican women attending at the Mexican Institute for Social Security from different areas of Mexico. Materials and Methods: DNAs from 2,956 cervical samples were subjected to HPV genotyping: 1,020 samples with normal cytology, 931 with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL), 481 with high grade HGSIL and 524 CC. Results: Overall HPV prevalence was 67.1%. A total of 40 HPV types were found; HPV16 was detected in 39.4% of the HPV-positive samples followed by HPV18 at 7.5%, HPV31 at 7.1%, HPV59 at 4.9%, and HPV58 at 3.2%. HPV16 presented the highest prevalence both in women with altered or normal cytology and HPV 18 presented a minor prevalence as reported worldwide. The prevalence ratio (PR) was calculated for the HPV types. The analysis of PR showed that HPV16 presents the highest association with CC, HPV 31, -33, -45, -52 and -58 also demonstrating a high association. Conclusions: The most prevalent HPV types in cervical cancer samples were -16, -18, -31, but it is important to note that we obtained a minor prevalence of HPV18 as reported worldwide, and that HPV58 and -52 also were genotypes with an important prevalence in CC samples. Determination of HPV genotypes is very important in order to evaluate the impact of vaccine introduction and future cervical cancer prevention strategies.

BackgroundCervical Cancer (CC) has become a public health concern of alarming proportions in many developing countries such as Mexico, particularly in low income sectors and marginalized regions. As such, an early detection is a key medical factor in improving not only their population’s quality of life but also its life expectancy. Interestingly, there has been an increase in the number of reports describing successful attempts at detecting cancer cells in human tissues or fluids using trained (sniffer) dogs. The great odor detection threshold exhibited by dogs is not unheard of. However, this represented a potential opportunity to develop an affordable, accessible, and non-invasive method for detection of CC.MethodsUsing clicker training, a male beagle was trained to recognize CC odor. During training, fresh CC biopsies were used as a reference point. Other samples used included cervical smears on glass slides and medical surgical bandages used as intimate sanitary pads by CC patients. A double-blind procedure was exercised when testing the beagle’s ability to discriminate CC from control samples.ResultsThe beagle was proven able to detect CC-specific volatile organic compounds (VOC) contained in both fresh cervical smear samples and adsorbent material samples. Beagle’s success rate at detecting and discriminating CC and non-CC odors, as indicated by specificity and sensitivity values recorded during the experiment, stood at an overall high (>90%). CC-related VOC in adsorbent materials were detectable after only eight hours of use by CC patients.ConclusionPresent data suggests different applications for VOC from the uterine cervix to be used in the detection and diagnosis of CC. Furthermore, data supports the use of trained dogs as a viable, affordable, non-invasive and, therefore, highly relevant alternative method for detection of CC lesions. Additional benefits of this method include its quick turnaround time and ease of use while remaining highly accurate and robust.

Cervical cancer (CC) is the most common in Mexican female population. The human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 and 18 frequencies in worldwide may be different due to geographical distribution. We analyzed the prevalence of HPV types and determinated their association in cervical lesion in a Mexican population. One hundred fifty-nine normal cervical smears, 95 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL), 59 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HGSIL), and 108 CC samples of the patients were collected. HPV types were determined by sequencing. We detected 11 high-risk types, four low-risk types, three not determinated, and two probably high risk. HPV were present in 12%, 57%, 88%, and 92% from normal, LGSIL, HGSIL, and CC samples, respectively. HPV 16 was the most common in all cervical lesions (71.6% in CC). HPV 58 was present in 18.6% of HGSIL, and the HPV 18 in 4.6% of CC. The 76% of all detected viruses belong to A9 species branch. Control women showed high percentage of HPV high-risk infection, suggesting that this is a high-risk group. High frequency of HPV 16 compared with a low incidence of HPV 18 was observed. HPV 58 is frequently detected in HGSIL but low frequency is found in CC. These findings might be considered for HPV screening.

Cervical carcinoma (CC) is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide and the first cause of death among the Mexican female population. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most important etiologic factor for CC. Of the oncogenic types, HPV16 and HPV18 are found in 60-70% of invasive CCs worldwide. HPV18 appears to be associated with a more aggressive form of cervical neoplasia than HPV16 infection. At present, there are no studies on differentially expressed cellular genes between transformed cells harboring HPV16 and HPV18 sequences. Based on previous complementary DNA microarray data from our group, 13 genes were found to be differentially overexpressed between HPV16- and HPV18-transformed cells. These genes were as follows: E6BP, UBE4A, C20orf14, ATF7, ABCC8, SLC6A12, WASF3, SUV39H1, SPAG8, CCNC, E2FFE, BIRC5, and DEDD. Differential expression of six selected genes was confirmed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). All real-time RT-PCRs confirmed differential expression between HPV18 and HPV(-) samples. The present work identifies genes from signaling pathways triggered by HPV transformation that could be differentially deregulated between HPV16(+) and HPV18(+) samples.