GENETIC VARIABILITY OF MUPAPILLOMAVIRUS TYPES HPV1, HPV63 AND HPV204

ANJA TERBENC; LEA HONJAK; ADRIANA A GIRI; DIEGO CHOUHY; ELISA M BOLATTI; MARIO POLJAK

Cape Town

Conferencia; 31st International Papillomavirus Conference; 2017

Objectives: To evaluate genetic variability of Mupapillomaviruses (Mu-PVs) within the LCR genomic region and to assess its potential clinical and/or functional significance.Methods: In order to determine nucleotide sequence variations within 979-bp, 555-bp and 510-bp long LCR genomic regions of HPV1, HPV63 and HPV204, respectively, a total of 57 Mu-PV-positive samples were amplified using several overlapping type-specific primer pairs. Complete LCR genomic regions of HPV1, HPV63 and HPV204 were assembled and subsequently aligned with HPV1, HPV63 and HPV204 reference sequences (Genbank accession numbers V01116, NC_001458 and KP769769, respectively) using Vector NTI Advance v11 program package.Results: Complete LCR genomic regions were obtained from 18 HPV1-positive samples (16 common warts, one anogenital wart and one nasopharyngeal swab), six HPV63-positive samples (five common warts and one eyebrow hair follicle) and two HPV204-positive samples (two swabs of the anal canal). A total of 22, 13 and one single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and/or deletions were observed within HPV1, HPV63 and HPV204 LCR genomic regions, respectively. No SNPs/deletions were identified within functional domains of HPV1 and HPV204; however, all HPV63-positive common warts harbored a SNP (A6922T) within a putative TATA box motif. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate genetic variability of Mu-PVs. HPV1 and HPV63 exhibited a high degree of genetic diversity within their LCR genomic regions, while HPV204 LCR genomic region harbored only one SNP. However, our results warrant further investigation on a larger sample collection.