Prevalence of human papillomaviruses in the healthy oral mucosa of women with high-grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion and of their partners as compared to healthy controls.

Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) carriage rates were investigated in relation to genital HPV carriage in women with HPV-associated cervical lesions and male partner of such women, including several couples, in comparison with healthy individuals. Buccal and lingual mucosa of 60 males and 149 females with healthy oral mucosa and without known genital lesion, genital and oral mucosa of further 40 females with cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and 34 male sexual partners of women with HSIL (including 20 couples) were sampled. HPV DNA was detected using MY/GP PCR. Genotype was determined by sequencing or restriction fragment length polymorphism. Virus copy numbers were determined by real-time PCR. Overall, oral HPV carriage rate was 5.7% (12/209) in healthy individuals; average copy number was 5.8 × 10(2) copies/1 µg DNA; male and female rates were comparable. Oral carriage in women with HSIL was significantly higher, 20.0% (8/40, P = 0.003); males with partners with HSIL showed a carriage rate of 17.6% (6/34), copy numbers were similar to the healthy controls. In contrast, genital carriage rate (52.9%, 18/34 vs. 82.5%, 33/40; P = 0.006) and average copy number were lower in males (5.0 × 10(5) vs. 7.8 × 10(5) copies/1 µg DNA; P = 0.01). Oral copy numbers in these groups and in healthy individuals were comparable. High-risk genotypes were dominant; couples usually had the same genotype in the genital sample. In conclusion, genital HPV carriage is a risk factor of oral carriage for the individual or for the sexual partner, but alone is not sufficient to produce an oral HPV infection in most cases.

Frequency of genetic and epigenetic alterations of p14ARF and p16INK4A in head and neck cancer in a Hungarian population.

Occurrence of genetic and epigenetic alterations affecting p14ARF and p16INK4A were investigated in tumour samples of 37 oral (OSCC) and 28 laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC) patients, and compared to exfoliated buccal epithelial cells of 68 healthy controls. Presence of deletions and mutations/polymorphisms affecting exons were examined using sequencing. Methylation status of promoters was assessed by methylation-specific PCR. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare frequency of events. Exon deletions were found in four controls, one OSCC and 22 LSCC patients; the latter significantly differed from controls (p < 0.001). Only two mutations (T24610A and C24702A) were in p16 exon 1 of two OSCC patients. Polymorphisms G28575A (Ala140Thr), G31292C (C540G) and G28608A were found in both patient groups. The p14 promoter was unmethylated in 86.7 % of OSCC and in 85.7 % of LSCC patients; for the p16 promoter these rates were 69.0 % and 76.2 % for OSCC and LSCC patients, respectively. Combining the two patient groups, unmethylated promoter was significantly less frequent in case of both p14 and p16 (p = 0.043 and p = 0.001, respectively) compared to the control group. In summary, exon deletion may be important in LSCC, while promoter methylation was relatively frequent in both patient groups.

Genomic differences in the background of different severity in juvenile-onset respiratory papillomatoses associated with human papillomavirus type 11.

This study aimed to compare complete genome sequences of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 11 from two solitary papillomas (considered minimally aggressive), two moderately (six and nine episodes) and two highly aggressive (30 and 33 episodes) juvenile-onset respiratory papillomatoses. Genomic regions were sequenced using the Sanger method; sequences were compared to available GenBank genomes. Activity of the long control region (LCR) was assessed in HEp-2 cell line using luciferase assays and compared to that of the reference (GenBank Accession Number M14119). Site-directed mutagenesis was performed to confirm the association of polymorphisms with differences in LCR activity. Eleven alterations resulted in amino acid changes in different open reading frames. A72E in E1 and Q86K in E2 proteins were exclusively present in a moderately aggressive disease, L1 alterations A476V and S486F were unique to a severe papillomatosis. HPV11s in both solitary papillomas had identical LCRs containing a T7546C polymorphism, which strongly attenuated LCR activity, as confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis. This strong attenuator polymorphism was also present in the other four genomes showing significantly higher activities, but in these other alterations with demonstrable but statistically not significant attenuating (A7413C, 7509 T deletion) or enhancing (C7479T, T7904A) effect on transactivating potential (as demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis) were also detected. LCR activities corresponded well to severity, excepting the highly aggressive papillomatosis with the L1 alterations. Presence of intratypic variants cannot explain differences in severity of respiratory papillomatoses associated with HPV11; virulence seems to be determined by the interaction of multiple genetic differences.