Correlation between human papillomavirus-associated cervical cancer and p53 codon 72 arginine/proline polymorphism

High-risk mucosal human papillomaviruses encode an EG oncoprotein, which bi nds the cellular p53 tumor suppressor protein, thereby marking it for degra dation through the ubiquitin-mediated pathway. A common p53 polymorphism at codon-72 of exon 4 results in translation to either arginine or proline. R ecently reported: data suggested an increased susceptibility to E6/ubiquiti n-mediated degradation of the Arg72-p53 isoform and an overrepresentation o f the homozygous Arg72-p53 genotype in cervical cancer patients. We have an alyzed this polymorphism in a larger series of patients with cervical cance r and in controls in the Czech Republic. We found no statistically signific ant differences between the codon-72 p53 genotypes of cervical cancer patie nts and the control women. Based on these results, it is unlikely that Arg7 2-p53 is associated with an increased risk for human papillomavirus-associa ted cervical tumor development in Czech women.