K. Zumbach et al., Antibodies against oncoproteins E6 and E7 of human papillomavirus types 16and 18 in cervical-carcinoma patients from Russia, INT J CANC, 85(3), 2000, pp. 313-318
Certain human papillomaviruses (HPV), mainly types 16 and 18, have been wid
ely recognized as an essential etiologic factor for the development of carc
inoma of the uterine cervix. The early HPV proteins E6 and E7 are consisten
tly expressed in the tumor cells, and cervical-carcinoma patients can devel
op antibodies against these oncoproteins. For cervical-carcinoma patients f
rom Eastern Europe and Russia, detailed information on HPV DNA prevalence a
nd HPV-specific immune responses is limited. The presence of HPV DNA in 128
Russian cervical-carcinoma tissues was determined: HPV16 DNA was found in
78% of the cases, HPV18 DNA In 14%, and no HPV-DNA in 10%. Using 4 recently
developed sensitive and highly specific second-generation enzyme-linked im
munosorbent assays, we also analyzed the prevalence of antibodies against H
PV16 and -18 E6 and E7 proteins in sera from 95 cervical-carcinoma patients
, from 61 female patients with non-HPV-associated tumors and from 83 female
healthy controls. The strong association of E6 and/or E7 antibodies with c
ervical carcinoma was confirmed, with 36% seropositives in this group again
st only 2% in the control groups. The detected antibodies are highly HPV-ty
pe-specific since all 26 HPV16-E6- or -E7-antibody-positive patients had HP
V16 DNA in their tumor and 6 out of the 8 HPV18-antibody-positive patients
had HPV18 DNA, Antibody responses to HPV16 E6 and E7 appear to be dependent
on clinical stage of the disease, with 21% seropositives found in FIGO sta
ge 1, 42% in stage II and 53% in stage III. Antibody response to HPV16 E6 i
s more frequent than to E7, especially in early stages. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss
, Inc.