Human papillomavirus type 6 and 11 and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas in sudanese patients

Abstract

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is an epitheliotropic virus that infects skin and mucosal cells. The potentially oncogenic HPV is divided into high and low risk types. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between HPV type 6 and 11 (low risk types) and the head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) in Sudanese patients. About 59 HNSCCs samples, including 28 previously HPV type 16 negative extracted DNA samples and 31 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues were used to detect HPV type 6 and 11 using conventional PCR. DNA of HPV type 6 and 11 was each detected in 25% of the examined samples. The DNA samples those were HPV type 16 negative revealed 14 positive samples for HPV type 6 and absence of HPV type 11. Most of positive samples for HPV type 6 were poorly differentiated, while most of positive samples for HPV type 11 were well differentiated carcinomas. Most (60%) of positive samples for HPV type 6 were non-kera-tinized whereas 60% of HPV type 11 were keratinized. Further studies are needed to investigate the relation between HPV genotypes (HPV type 6, 11 and 16) to probably induce multiple infections required for the development of malignant lesions.