What is it about?
We have measured HPV viral load (VL), methylation and integration in a set of samples ranging from asymptomatic to cervical cancer grade. We targeted four HPV's genotypes (16, 18, 31, 45). Methylation showed to be the most related to the high-grade cervical disease.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Different papers showed that the HPV VL was either associated or not to the cervical disease; we added more statistics to the subject, showing that VL was significantly lower only in the asymptomatic samples. We confirmed higher methylation in the L1 ORF of high-grade cases, supporting its use as a biomarker for cancer. We observed differences in methylation levels between HPV species.
Perspectives
This pilot study based on a large and well-characterized dataset supports further investigation of HPV methylation as a biomarker. Molecular models are required to understand whether methylation affects the expression of viral oncogenes and what is the association between methylation and integration status.
Luigi Marongiu
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Human Papillomavirus 16, 18, 31 and 45 viral load, integration and methylation status stratified by cervical disease stage, BMC Cancer, May 2014, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-384.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
