Detection of HPV16 E6 gene in cervical tissues by quantitative polymerase chain reaction

Abstract

To establish a method for detection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) type16 E6 gene in Cervical carcinomas Specimens. To study the relationship between the quantities of HPV16 E6 (Human papillomavirus type16 E6 gene) in cervical tissues and the course of cervical disease in Xinjiang. HPV16E6 gene and beta-actin was detected in parallel by FQ-PCR (fluorescence quantitative PCR). The number of copies of HPV16 E6 gene and beta-actin was detected in parallel by FQ-PCR (fluorescence quantitative PCR) in tissues of 69 cervical cancer, 65 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), 33chronic cervicitis and samples of 96 cervical smear samples of vaginitis and cervicitis. The variation in HPV copies per genomic DNA equivalent can be estimated by dividing the HPV copy number by the beta-actin copy number. The positive rate of HPV16 E6 gene was 83.0%, 75.7%, 93.3% and 3.3% in tissues of cervical cancer, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), chronic cervicitis and samples of cervical smear respectively. The amount of HPV16 E6 gene was gradually higher by the developing of the course of cervical disease. They have positive rank correlation, r = 0.83, P < 0.01. The study underscores the importance of the relationship between the HPV16 E6 gene and the course of cervical disease in Xinjiang. It also suggests that the quantification of HPV16 E6 gene may be useful as a prognostic tool to identify women who are at increased risk of developing cervical cancer. This method may be applied to studies of a number of issues related to the natural history of cervical cancer, such as the amounts of HPV in high- and low-grade lesions.