Asian-American variants of human papillomavirus type 16 have extensive mutations in the E2 gene and are highly amplified in cervical carcinomas
✍ Scribed by Leonora Casas; Silvia C. Galvan; Rosa M. Ordoñez; Nora Lopez; Miriam Guido; Jaime Berumen
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- French
- Weight
- 200 KB
- Volume
- 83
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0020-7136
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✦ Synopsis
Human-papillomavirus (HPV)-E2 protein is involved in
gene-expression regulation and replication of HPV genome. Disruption of the E2 gene during viral integration has been proposed as a mechanism of tumoral progression, since the expression of E6/E7 viral oncogenes is allowed. However, retention of E1/E2 genes and high viral amplification are frequently found in HPV16-positive carcinomas of some populations. In this study, we investigated whether retention of E1/E2 and viral amplification are associated with particular HPV16 E2 variants in cervical carcinomas. HPV16 detection, E1/E2 integrity and viral amplification were explored by Southern blot in 123 cervical carcinomas. HPV16 variants were identified by Southern blot and by sequencing E6, L1/MY and E2 regions. Of 46 HPV16-positive tumors, 34 were positive for E1/E2 and 14 of them showed a variant restriction pattern by mutations in E2. All 14 were Asian-American (AA) variants and, of 11 sub-classified, 6 were AA-a and 5 AA-c. Two E1/E2-negative tumors also contained the AA-c variant, while the remaining HPV16-positive tumors contained only European variants. The E2 gene of AA variants showed 24 mutations, 19 identical in both sub-classes. The 24 mutations were distributed throughout the entire gene and 19 result in 18 amino-acid changes. The AA variants were associated with E1/E2-positive carcinomas with more than 50 viral copies/cell (p ؍ 0.035). The association of Asian-American E2 variants with retention of E1/E2 suggests that E2 variation may be an alternative mechanism de-regulating the expression of viral oncogenes. Int.