THE MAJOR E6 E7 TRANSCRIPT OF HPV-16 IN EXFOLIATED CELLS FROM CERVICAL NEOPLASIA PATIENTS/

HPV-16 is implicated in the development of progressive cervical neopla sia, and E6 and E7 proteins of this virus play important roles in its oncogenic activity, Reverse transcriptase-nested-polymerase chain reac tion (RT-nested PCR) method was applied to detect the major transcript (E6I/E7) from E6/E7 ORFs of HPV-16 in the exfoliated cervical and va ginal cells from cervical neoplasia patients, The incidence of the E6 I/E7 transcript was proportional to the class of cytologic diagnosis, Further analysis revealed that the incidence of the E6I/E7 transcript in Pap smears of class I or II was 5/28 (18%) patients who had previo usly been diagnosed as having cervical neoplasia but was 1/37 (3%) pat ients who had never been diagnosed (P < 0.05), These findings suggest that some patients followed up for cervical neoplasia were infected wi th transcriptionally active HPVs even when their Pap smears were negat ive, In addition, the E6I/E7 transcript could not be detected after s urgical treatment in any of the cases that were able to be followed up , The E6I/E7 transcript in the exfoliated cells may prove valuable fo r epidemiological studies of the pathogenesis of HPV infection. (C) 19 95 Academic Press, Inc.