HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS DNA IN NONMELANOMA SKIN CANCERS OF A RENAL-TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT - DETECTION OF A NEW SEQUENCE RELATED TO EPIDERMODYSPLASIA-VERRUCIFORMIS ASSOCIATED TYPES

The detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) types originally isolated from patients with epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) in skin tumors of transplant recipients may point to a role of this HPV subgroup in non-melanoma skin cancer in immunosuppressed people, We analyzed 17 fo rmalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies of benign or malignant skin t umors of a renal transplant patient with unusually widespread cutaneou s carcinomas, Using a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), HPV-spec ific DNA was demonstrated in ii specimens (65%), Analysis of nine PCR amplification products revealed four different sequences related to EV -associated HPVs. Three sequences occurred only in one lesion, In six samples identical sequences were found that differed from all HPV sequ ences published to date and may therefore represent a novel EV-HPV typ e, preliminarily labeled RTRX7, RTRX7 was found in benign, premalignan t, and malignant skin lesions. Alignments identified HPV12 as the clos est relative of RTRX7, both in the DNA (81% homology) and in the amino acid sequence (84% homology).