The cervix multi-viruses infection and the development of cervical carcinomas

Abstract

The infections of human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) to human cervical epithelium are universal and some of them are associated with the development of cervical carcinomas. One hundred and eleven cervical cancer biopsies taken from Beijing area and Xiangyuan county in Shanxi province of China were examined for the presence of DNA sequences of HPV, HSV-2 and EBV by means of Dot blot hybridization. The experiment results showed that the total infectious rates of HPV, HSV-2 and EBV were 71.17% (79/111), 14.44% (16/111) and 15.63% (15/96), respectively. Seventy-nine samples positive for HPV were further analysed for the viral types distribution, the result indicated that the positive specimens of HPV type 16 accounted for 72.15%; otherwise, the biopsies positive for HPV type 18 and 6B/11 only accounted for 16.46% and 11.39%, respectively. The data suggested that HPV infection, especially HPV type 16, may play an important role in the development of cervical carcinomas. 16 specimens positive for HSV-2 were examined for HPV DNA sequences and the result uncovered that 13 out of them were HPV16 positive (81.25%); 11 samples containing EBV genomes were also examined for HPV DNA sequences and the result indicated that 9 of 11 were detectable for HPV DNA. The experiment results proved a direct evidence of multi-virus infection in cervix and of the synergistic interaction among viruses in the process of cervical epithelial carcinogenesis. Comparing of the viruses’ infection of two areas, the frequencies of HPV infection in Beijing and Xiangyuan areas were 72.84% (59/ 81) and 66.67% (20/30) ; the infectious rates of HSV-2 in the two areas were 8.64% (7/81) and 30% (9/30) (P P>0.05). The results proved another strong evidence that the high incidence of cervical cancer in Xiangyuan county may be closely correlated with multi-viruses infection and with multi-virus synergistic interaction.