DETECTION OF THE BC-24 TRANSFORMING FRAGMENT OF THE HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS TYPE-2 (HSV-2) DNA IN CERVICAL-CARCINOMA TISSUE BY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION PCR)

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to investigate samples fr om Indonesian and Swedish patients with cervical intraepithelial neopl asia grade III (CIN III), squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the cervix for the presence of a transforming fragment (BC 24) of her pes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) DNA. The PCR test for HSV-2 DNA was m ore sensitive than the infectivity endpoint titer in a cell culture sy stem and no cross reactivity was found with either varicella-zoster vi rus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human papillomavirus 16 or 1 8, or human genomic DNA. Using this PCR test, 2 out of 5 cases with CI N III, 10 of 71 squamous cell carcinomas, and 3 of 11 adenocarcinomas of the uterine cervix were found to contain DNA sequences homologous t o the BC 24 fragment of the HSV-2 genome. Only two of the samples cont aining this transforming region of the HSV-2 DNA were positive in a PC R assay for the HSV-2 DNA polymerase gene. The great majority of the H SV-2 BC 24 DNA positive (12 of 15) came from the Indonesian group of p atients. All 15 CIN III or cancer samples positive for the HSV-2 BC 24 fragment were also positive for papillomavirus DNA. In line with obse rvations made by others, our data support the hypothesis that HSV infe ction could represent one of several possible oncogenic cofactors lead ing to cervical carcinoma. The HSV cofactor might be more important in the Indonesian than in the Swedish population.