Human papillomavirus type-16 variants in Quechua aboriginals from Argentina

PICCONI, M.A.; ALONIO, V.; SICHERO, L.; MBAYED, V.; VILLA, L.; GRONDA, J.; CAMPOS, R.; TEYSSIÉ, A.

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY

Wiley InterScience

Lugar: Hoboken, USAA; Año: 2003 vol. 69 p. 546 - 552

0146-6615

Cervical carcinoma is the leading cause of cancerdeath in Quechua indians from Jujuy (northwesternArgentina). To determine the prevalence ofHPV-16 variants, 106 HPV-16 positive cervicalsamples were studied, including 33 low-gradesquamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), 28 highgradesquamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL),9 invasive cervical cancer (ICC), and 36 samplesfrom women with normal colposcopy and cytology.HPV genome variabilitywas examined in theL1 and E6 genes by PCR-hybridization. In a subsetof 20 samples, a LCR fragment was also analyzedby PCR-sequencing. Most variants belonged tothe European branch with subtle differences thatdependedontheviralgenefragment studied.Onlyabout 10% of the specimens had non-Europeanvariants, including eight Asian-American, twoAsian, and one North-American-1. E6 gene analysisrevealedthat 43%of the sampleswere identicalto HPV-16 prototype, while 57% corresponded tovariants. Interestingly, the majority (87%) of normalsmears had HPV-16 prototype, whereas variantswere detected mainly in SIL and ICC. LCRsequencing yielded 80% of variants, including69% of European, 19% Asian-American, and 12%Asian. We identified a new variant, the ArgentineQuechua-51 (AQ-51), similar to B-14 plus twoadditional changes: G7842!A and A7837!C;phylogenetic inference allocated it in the Asian-American branch. The high proportion ofEuropean variants may reflect Spanish colonialinfluence on these native Inca descendants. Thepredominance of HPV-16 variants in pathologicsampleswhencomparedtonormal controls couldhaveimplications for the naturalhistory of cervicallesions.