Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MIKROBIYOLOJI BULTENI, cilt.43, sa.3, ss.463-469, 2009 (SCI-Expanded)
High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) are associated with the development of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. In addition to cytological screening, nucleic acid testing is the mainstay of diagnosis and follow-up. The molecular tests used for the detection of HPV-DNA in cervical specimens, usually rely on consensus polymerase chain reaction assays that target L1 region of the viral genome. Diagnostic assays that monitor mRNAs from HPV oncogenic proteins, E6 and E7, have also been recently developed. This study was aimed to detect E6/E7 mRNAs from high-risk HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33 and 45 qualitatively by a commercial Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification (NASBA) assay (NucliSENS EasyQ HPV (TM); bioMerieux, France) from cervical specimens. Cervical smear samples were collected from 57 women who had suspected lesions in gynecologic examination and transported by a commercial liquid-based cytology system (ThinPrep (TM) Pap Smear Method, Cytyc, USA). Nucleic acid purification was performed by an automated commercial station (NucliSENS easyMAG (TM), bioMerieux, France) as directed by the manufacturer. Presence of viral E6/E7 mRNAs were detected in 38.6% (22/57) of the samples. HPV type 33 mRNA was observed as the most common (11/22, 50%), followed by type 16 (9/22, 41%), 31 (5/22, 22.7%), 45 (4/22, 18.2%) and 18 (1/22, 4.5%). Single and multiple infections with 2 HPV types were identified in 63.6% (14/22) and of 36.4% (8/22) of the positive samples, respectively. The most common co-infection pattern was observed as HPV type 16 and 33 that comprised 13.6% (3/22) of the positive samples. This study was conducted as a preliminary evaluation of commercial NASBA E6/E7 mRNA testing in routine molecular microbiology applications. More studies are required to fully assess the performance of the system for diagnostic laboratories in Turkey.