Antibodies against oncoproteins E6 and E7 of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 in patients with head-and-neck squamous-cell carcinoma

The Cancer-Associated Virus Landscape in HIV Patients with Oral Hairy Leukoplakia, Kaposi's Sarcoma, and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Although HIV-positive patients are at higher risk for developing a variety of infection-related cancers, the prevalence of infections with the seven known cancer-associated viruses has not been studied. Luciferase immunoprecipitation systems were used to evaluate antiviral antibodies in four 23-person groups: healthy blood donors and HIV-infected patients with oral hairy leukoplakia (OLP), Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Antibody profiling revealed that all HIV-positive individuals were strongly seropositive for anti-gp41 and antireverse transcriptase antibodies. However, anti-p24 HIV antibody levels were highly variable and some OLP and KS patients demonstrated weak or negative responses. Profiling two EBV antigens revealed no statistical difference in antibody levels among the three HIV-infected groups. A high frequency of KSHV infection was detected in HIV patients including 100% of KS, 78% of OLP, and 57% of NHL patients. Most HIV-infected subjects (84%) showed anti-HBV core antibodies, but only a few showed antibodies against HCV. MCV seropositivity was also common (94%) in the HIV-infected individuals and KS patients showed statistically higher antibody levels compared to the OLP and NHL patients. Overall, 68% of the HIV-infected patients showed seropositivity with at least four cancer-associated viruses. Antibody profiles against these and other infectious agents could be useful for enhancing the clinical management of HIV patients.

Detection of human papillomavirus in Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its adjacent normal epithelium

AIM: To investigate the putative role of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the carcinogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in China.

METHODS: Twenty-three esophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples and the distal normal epithelium from Shanxi Province, and 25 more esophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples from Anyang city, two areas with a high incidence of esophageal cancer in China, were detected for the existence of HPV-16 DNA by PCR, mRNA in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) targeting HPV-16 E6 gene.

RESULTS: There were approximately 64% (31/48) patients having HPV-16 DNA in tumor samples, among them nearly two-thirds (19/31) samples were detected with mRNA expression of HPV-16 E6. However, in the normal esophageal epithelium from cancer patients, the DNA and mRNA of HPV-16 were found with much less rate: 34.7% (8/23) and 26.1% (6/23) respectively. In addition, at protein level detected by IHC assay, 27.1% (13/48) tumor samples had virus oncoprotein E6 expression, while only one case of normal epithelium was found positive.

CONCLUSION: HPV infection, especially type 16, should be considered as a risk factor for esophageal malignancies in China.