EFFECT OF INTERFERON THERAPY ON HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS COPY NUMBER IN PATIENTS WITH CONDYLOMA-ACUMINATUM

Interferons exert antiviral, antiproliferative, and immunomodulatory e ffects on target cells, The effectiveness of interferon treatment can be followed by measuring parameters involved in interferon action, The clinical effectiveness of interferons has been proved in the human pa pillomavirus (HPV)-associated disease condyloma acuminatum. Because on e of the most important goals in the treatment of this condition is th e elimination of recurrences, it was asked whether clinically effectiv e interferon therapy was associated with elimination of HPV DNA, The a uthors used a polymerase chain reaction-based method to detect the HPV from minute amounts of clinical biopsies. Human papillomavirus-transf ormed cell lines or cloned HPV genomes served as different copy number controls, The intensity ratio of L1 HPV and the human beta-globin (wh ich served as an internal control) fragments was determined and used f or estimation of HPV copy number in different biopsies, A direct effec t of interferon treatment on HPV viral genome copies was observed in a group of responder patients, but not in the clinically resistant grou p. With these data, a correlation was found between virologic data and clinical findings. This method also can be used in other lesions to d etermine the HPV copy number and HPV type and may have value in determ ining the antiviral activities of other agents used in the treatment o f HPV-related lesions.