A high frequency of human papillomavirus DNA sequences in cervical carcinomas of indian women as revealed by southern blot hybridization and polymerase chain reaction

Abstract

Ninety-six colposcopically directed biopsies from squamous epithelial carcinoma of the uterine cervix and 22 age-matched normal control biopsy specimens were examined by both Southern blot hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of different human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA types. Cancer of the uterine cervix, which is the most common malignant disease in Indian women, showed a high frequency (98%) of HPV as compared to those reported from other parts of the world. HPV type 16 was found to be the dominant (64%) type while the frequency of HPV type 18 was very low (3%). On individual typing of HPV, no biopsy was found to contain any other known HPV types under stringent conditions of hybridization except a single case of HPV type 11. Only one case of double infection with HPV types 16 and 18 was recorded. Under low stringency conditions of hybridization with a mixed probe of HPV types 16 and 18, 29 additional biopsies were found to be positive. Southern blot hybridization alone detected HPV DNA in 92% of the cases but none in the controls. By PCR, six (6.25%) more cases and four (18.18%) healthy women were found to be positive for HPVs. Analysis of the physical state of HPV 16 indicated integration in about 70% of carcinoma cases while 30% of them were in episomal form. The findings suggest that infection with HPV is an important etiologic factor for the development of cervical cancer, that a number of such tumours may arise without HPV infection, and that integration of the viral DNA into host genome is not always essential for malignant progression.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Telomerase activity as an adjunct to high-risk human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 and cytology screening in cervical cancer

“…HPV type 16 was found to be the most prevalent type (84.7%) which is in agreement with other studies, while the frequency of HPV type 18 (3.38) is very low when compared to other ethnic population (Durst et al, 1983;Yoshikawa et al, 1985;Das et al, 1992b;Bosch et al, 1995;Clifford et al, 2003) but it is consistent with Indian data (Das et al, 1992a, b). Absence of any HPV type in seven cervical tumours indicates that some other mechanism/ factors or a hitherto unknown HPV-dependent pathway also exists for the genesis of cervical cancer.…”

“…Pap smear test routinely employed for the diagnosis of premalignant cervical lesions is, however, found to have variable sensitivity and specificity. Testing for oncogenic type of HPVs is another viable method to screen women with cytological abnormalities since HR-HPV infections are considered as the most common causal factor and are reported in more than 90% of cervical cancers (Das et al, 1992b;Bosch et al, 1995;Bosch and de Sanjose, 2002). We have considered only four HPV types (HPV 16,18,6 and 11) that are highly prevalent in and around Delhi for this study.…”

Analysis by polymerase chain reaction of the physical state of human papillomavirus type 16 DNA in cervical preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions

“…In India as many as 98% of cervical carcinoma cases are found to harbour HPV DNA , a frequency not seen in other countries. The most prevalent type is HPV-16 while the frequency of HPV-18 and other types is either very low or zero (Pfister, 1987;Gissmann et al, 1987;Das et al, 1989Das et al, , 1992. Since it is generally believed that integration of viral DNA into the host cell genome may be an essential prerequisite for malignant progression (Dtirst et al, 1985;Gissmann et al, 1987;Schneider-Maunoury et al, 1987;zur Hausen, 1989a), there hive been several studies (Baker et al, 1987;Boshart et al, 1984;Diirst et al, 1986;Gissmann et al, 1984;Lehn et al, 1985;McCance et al, 1983;Riou et al, 1985;Spence et al, 1988) analysing the physical state of HPVs which may serve as a prognostic indicator for the preneoplastic lesions that are likely to progress to cancers.…”

Processing of long-stored archival cervical smears for human papillomavirus detection by the polymerase chain reaction

“…This has resulted in more reliable data about the HPV prevalence in cervical biopsies with different degrees of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and in smears with different Pap classes. Increasing prevalence rates of high-risk HPV types have been found both for increasing grade of CIN (Bergeron et al, 1992;Lungu et al, 1992) and for increasing degree of dysplasia (dyskaryosis) as determined by cytology (van den Brule et al, 1991;de Roda Husman et al, 1994) and up to more than 95% for cervical carcinomas (Resnick et al, 1990;van den Brule et al, 1991;Das et al, 1992;TN Munioz, personal communication). These data point to an important role for high-risk HPVs in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer.…”