Comparison between two methods for molecular characterization of human papillomavirus

ABSTRACT

A sensitive method of detection for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is important to facilitate the early treatment of cervical cancer precursors.Objective: to analyze the spectrum of HPV infection and compare the sensibility of DNA HPV detection using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nestedPCR (nPCR) methods in a group of 251 women of Pelotas-RS. Methods: genomic DNA was extracted from the collected samples and was submitted toPCR methods with the primers MY09/11 and nPCR with the pair of primers MY09/MY11 and GP5+/6+. The results were applied to the softwares Epi-Info v.3.5.1* and STATA v.11 * for analyzes. Results: the prevalence of HPV infection was 6.8% with the use of primers MY09/11. When associated withprimers GP5/6, this result increased to 29.9% (p < 0.001). Conclusion: the increase founded in HPV DNA detection from 6.8 to 29.9% suggests that thetechnique of nPCR MY09/11 followed by GP5/6 is the most sensitive method to detect HPV DNA from cervical specimens.