DNA, DNA testing, HPV

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common cancer type arising in the oral cavity and belongs to the wider group of head and neck cancers (HNCs).MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in mature form are noncoding RNAs, that regulate posttranscriptional gene expression by relatively nonspecific binding.As a result a single miRNA may regulate/control the expression of several genes which are involved in a variety of cellular processes like regulation of cellular differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis thus playing a role in cancer development.The AIM of this review was to summarize current findings on the effect of HPV status and presence of risk factors-smoking and alcohol consumption on miRNA expression as cancer biomarkers in patients with OSCC.. Effect of HPV status, smoking and alcohol consumption, on miRNA expression in oral cancer-a review of the literature. Int J Surg Med. 2017; 3(4): 234-243. doi:10.5455/ijsm.mirna-expression-in-oral-cancer

Shortly before his father's death, Lennard Davis received a cryptic call from his uncle Abie, who said he had a secret he wanted to tell him one day. When finally revealed, the secret--that Abie himself was Davis's father, via donor insemination--seemed too preposterous to be true. Born before the wide use of such technologies, Davis was filled with doubt about the truth of what this ne'er-do-well uncle was claiming. Moreover, Abie was mentally unstable, an unreliable witness to the past. For over twenty years, Davis tried to erase the whole episode from his mind.
Then he decided to approach Ira Glass of This American Life so that he and the show could dig deeper into this mystery. Davis's obsession to find the truth led him to DNA labs and online genealogical research sites.
A suspenseful and absorbing personal journey, this is also a fascinating intellectual foray into the history of artificial insemination and a moving investigation of all our attempts to understand ourselves. The book is an expansion of the This American Life show also titled "Go Ask Your Father."

Abstract
Purpose

We sought to evaluate prevalence, age-adjusted distribution, and impact of single and multiple high- and low-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) subtypes and their associations with cervical lesions.

Methods

Data were extracted from 11,224 women who underwent routine screening of HPV genotyping and liquid-based cytology co-testing. Fifteen high-risk (HR) and six low-risk (LR) HPV types were genotyped.

Results

Overall HPV prevalence was 10.7 %, and young women (under 21 years old) harbored highest HPV infection rate (40.38 %). The rate declined in old women 9.49 % (age 30–49) and 6.89 % (age 50 and above). Normal cytology had lowest HPV (5.66 %) compared to low-grade (60.49 %), high-grade (71.96 %) squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL and HSIL) and squamous cell carcinoma SCC (86.9 %). LR HPV subtypes were absent in SCC and were consistently lower than HR HPV in LSIL (6.74 vs. 33.54 %) and HSIL (2.12 vs. 51.32 %). Multiple HPV infection was more frequent in young women under 30 years old (10 %) than older women (2 %) and in LSIL (20.2 %), HSIL (18.5 %) than SCC (4.4 %). HR HPV 52, 16, 18, and 58 were the most frequent subtypes in normal, LSIL, and HSIL. Greater or equal proportion of HPV 16, 18, 45, and 52 was found in SCC compared to normal cytology (SCC/normal ratios 4.8, 1.2, 1.6, and 1.7). While important in LSIL and HSIL, HPV58 was not detected in SCC.

Conclusion

Taken together, identification of these HPV types, especially HPV 16, 18, 45, and 52, and their associated cervical lesions may improve cervical cancer preventive strategies in Indonesia.

Background: Persistent infection with high-risk (HR) HPV genotypes has been associated with cervical cancer, the third cancer affecting women in Oman with a crude incidence rate of 4.7 and mortality rate of 2.5 respectively. Other types of lower-risk (LR) HPV are associated with warts in both genders worldwide. Objectives: To assess the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV and the risk factors among women with normal and abnormal cytology. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted between September 2014 and April 2015. 258 cervical samples were obtained from women aged 18-68 years attending the Gynaecology Outpatient Clinic. HPV genotyping was performed using a multiplex real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Results: 22 different HPV genotypes were detected in 46 women (17.8%) and included 15 HR and 7 LR genotypes. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients (P = 0.052) and oral contraceptives users (P = 0.016) showed significant association with HPV infection. Conclusion: The most frequently observed HPV types were HR HPV 82 and LR HPV 54. These findings show that the predominant HPV genotypes in Oman are different from those seen in worldwide studies. This finding is important to determine the potential impact of preventive measures especially new vaccines to reduce the burden of cervical cancer.

Background: This study was aimed at estimating the human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence and its determinants among a sample of Ghanaian women. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Setting: Gynaecology outpatient clinic of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana; the largest tertiary care gynaecology outpatient clinic in Ghana. Participants: Convenient sample of 75 consenting women visiting the clinic. Methods: Information was obtained through personal interviews using structured questionnaire, Pap smears obtained, and laboratory testing of cervical exfoliated cells was performed. HPV DNA was detected using a GP5+/6+ polymerase chain reaction assay. These data were analyzed using both univariate and bivariate techniques. Results: The mean age of participants was 33.3 years (standard deviation, 9.2) and the percentage of lifetime monogamy was 21.3%. The crude HPV DNA prevalence was 10.7%. Unlike most populations studied so far, HPV prevalence was high not only among young women, but also in middle and old age. Independent HPV determinants were being illiterate (prevalence odds ratio [POR], 13.9; 95% confidence interval [95%CI], 1.9-100) and reporting more than three lifetime sexual partners (POR, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.0-22.2).

It has been suggested that Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and human papillomaviruses (HPV) co-infection could contribute to development of intraepithelial lesions. In this study, HPV and CT-DNA were investigated in 250 cervicovaginal samples of patients from Minas Gerais, Brazil. The cytological analysis revealed that 70% of samples (175) were negative, 5.2% (13) presented atypical squamous or glandular cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS/AGUS), 12.4% (31) presented low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), 10.8% (27) high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), and 1.6% (4) invasive carcinoma. HPV-DNA and HPV/CT co-infection was observed in 40% (100/250) and in 5.2% (13/250) of samples, respectively. Among the positive cytological samples, HPV-DNA was detected in 73.3% and CT-DNA in 9.33% and in 13%, if only the HPV positive samples were considered. The highest co-infection rate (15.4%) was observed among ASCUS/AGUS samples. Although a significant association was found for HPV infection and the precursor lesions of cervical cancer, it was not possible to establish a significant association between these lesions and CT or HPV/CT co-infection. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2007;35:198–202. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

In San Luis Potosí City cervical infection by human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) associated to dysplastic lesions is more prevalent in younger women. In this work HPV16 subtypes and variants associated to low-grade intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), high-grade intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and invasive cervical cancer (ICC) of 38 women residing in San Luis Potosí City were identified by comparing their E6 open reading frame sequences.

This study aims to describe the experiences of women who are diagnosed with the human papillomavirus (HPV). To develop the topic guide and the structure of the interviews, a theoretical framework has been used. Common Sense Model of Illness (CSM) used as the primary instrument to compose the interview questions and to analyze data. Under the guidance of obtained ethics committee approval, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 HPV-infected women (M=29.16, SD=4.30). With the exception of one low-risk type, seven women participated were diagnosed with high-risk type of HPV. Interview questions were composed by making use of both the theoretical framework and literature review; aimed to identify the barriers that patients are faced with, as well as the factors that facilitate treatment and coping. Interpretetive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze and interpret the results. All data obtained from this research were analyzed using MAXQDA, a computer program used for qualitative analysis. Ambiguity found as the main theme of the analysis and four leading themes defined as barriers in forming the illness representation: Behavioral Ambiguity, Perceptional Ambiguity, Procedural Ambiguity and Social Dilemma. These themes were discussed in relation to the theoretical framework.
Keywords: human papilomavirus, illness perception, ambiguity, illness model, treatment adherence

Background: Prevalence of high risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) types in the states of San Luis Potosí (SLP) and Guanajuato (Gto), Mexico, was determined by restriction fragment length-polymorphism (RFLP) analysis on the E6 ~250 bp (E6-250) HR-HPV products amplified from cervical scrapings of 442 women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and invasive carcinoma (280 from SLP and 192 from Gto). Fresh cervical scrapings for HPV detection and typing were obtained from all of them and cytological and/or histological diagnoses were performed on 383.

Human Papillomaviruses (HPVs) are involved in the etiology of anogenital and head and neck cancers. The HPV DNA prevalence greatly differs by anatomical site. Indeed, the high rates of viral DNA prevalence in anal and cer-vical carcinomas contrast with the lower fraction of cancer cases attributable to HPVs in other anatomical sites, chiefly the vulva, the penis and head and neck. Here we analyzed 2635 Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded surgical samples that had previously tested negative for the presence of HPVs DNA using the SPF10/DEIA procedure, in order to identify the presence of other PVs not explicitly targeted by standard molecular epidemiologic approaches. All samples were reanalyzed using five broad-PV PCR primer sets (CP1/2, FAP6064/FAP64, SKF/SKR, MY9/MY11, MFI/MFII) targeting the main PV main clades. In head and neck carcinoma samples (n = 1141), we recovered DNA from two BetaHPVs, namely HPV20 and HPV21, and from three cutaneous AlphaPVs, namely HPV2, HPV57 and HPV61. In vulvar squamous cell carcinoma samples (n = 902), we found one of the samples containing DNA of one cutaneous HPV, namely HPV2, and 29 samples contained DNA from essentially mucosal HPVs. In penile squamous cell carcinoma samples (n = 592), we retrieved the DNA of HPV16 in 16 samples. Our results show first that the SPF10/DEIA is very sensitive, as we recovered only 2.1% (55/2635) false negative results; second, that although the DNA of cutaneous HPVs can be detected in cancer samples, their relative contribution remains anyway minor (0.23%; 6/2635) and may be neglected for screening and vaccination purposes; and third, their contribution to malignancy is not necessarily warranted and needs to be elucidated.

The genus β human papillomavirus (HPV) type 8 is associated with nonmelanoma skin cancer in patients with epidermodysplasia verruciformis, and evidence for its protumorigenic potential in the general population increases. To date, strategies to suppress genus β HPV infections are limited. Interferon regulatory factors IRF-3 and IRF-7 play key roles in the activation of the innate immune response to viral infections. In this study, we show for the first time that both IRF-3 and IRF-7 regulate transcription of a papillomavirus, but with opposing effects. IRF-7, expressed in the suprabasal layers of human epidermis, increased HPV8 late promoter activity via direct binding to viral DNA. UV-B light-induced activation of the HPV8 promoter involved IRF-7 as a downstream effector. In contrast, IRF-3, expressed in all layers of human epidermis, induced strong HPV8 suppression in primary keratinocytes. IRF-3-mediated suppression prevailed over IRF-7-induced HPV8 transcription. Unlike the E6 oncoprotein of the mucosal high-risk HPV16, the HPV8 E6 protein did not bind to IRF-3 and only weakly antagonized its activity. Strong antiviral activity was also observed, when keratinocytes were treated with potent IRF-3 activators, poly(I:C) or RNA bearing 5' phosphates. In conclusion, we show that IRF-3 activation induces a state of cell-autonomous immunity against HPV in primary human keratinocytes. Our study suggests that local application of IRF-3-activating compounds might constitute an attractive novel therapeutic strategy against HPV8-associated diseases, particularly in epidermodysplasia verruciformis patients.

In sub-Saharan Africa, invasive cervical cancer (ICC) incidence and mortality are among the highest in the world. This cross-sectional epidemiological study assessed human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence and type distribution in women with ICC in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. Cervical biopsy specimens were obtained from women aged ≥21 years with lesions clinically suggestive of ICC. Histopathological diagnosis of ICC was determined by light microscopy examination of hematoxylin and eosin stained sections of paraffin-embedded cervical specimens; samples with a confirmed histopathological diagnosis underwent HPV DNA testing by polymerase chain reaction. HPV-positive specimens were typed by reverse hybridization line probe assay. Between October 2007 and March 2010, cervical specimens from 659 women were collected (167 in Ghana, 192 in Nigeria, and 300 in South Africa); 570 cases were histologically confirmed as ICC. The tumor type was identified in 551/570 women with ICC; squamous cell carcinoma was observed in 476/570 (83.5%) cases. The HPV-positivity rate in ICC cases was 90.4% (515/570). In ICC cases with single HPV infection (447/515 [86.8%]), the most commonly detected HPV types were HPV16 (51.2%), HPV18 (17.2%), HPV35 (8.7%), HPV45 (7.4%), HPV33 (4.0%), and HPV52 (2.2%). The prevalence of single and multiple HPV infections seemed higher among HIVpositive women and HPV type distribution appeared to differ according to tumor type and HIV status. In conclusion, HPV16, 18, 45, and 35 were the most common HPV types in sub-Saharan African women with ICC and HPV infections were more common in HIV-positive women