Distribution and viral load bf type specific HPVs in different cervical lesions as detected by PCR-ELISA

Aims-To investigate the distribution and viral load of the most prevalent h igh risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45 and low ri sk HPV types 6 and 11 in a variety of cervical lesions. Methods-One hundred and seventy six cytological specimens from women with d ifferent cervical lesions were investigated. For an accurate standardisatio n of the sample, cervical cells were counted and a volume of the cell suspe nsion processed by polymerase chain reaction-enzyme linked immunosorbent as say (PCR-ELISA). Semiquantitative determinations were achieved in relation to an external reference titration curve. Results-HPV DNA was detected in 60.2% of the samples. HPV-16 was the preval ent genotype (57.6%), followed by HPV-33, HPV-31, HPV-6, HPV-18, and HPV-45 . HPV-11 was not detected. HPV-16 showed a pronounced increase in prevalenc e with the evolution of cervical disease. Semiquantitative evaluation of th e results showed that only HPV-16 DNA could reach very high values (> 1000 genome copies/cell) and a very high HPV-16 load correlated with the severit y of cervical disease. Conclusions-Only HPV-16 load appears to be associated with the severity of cervical disease.