Maternal Genetic Ancestry and Risk Factors for Cervical Cancer Prevalence in the Guarani Indians from the Province of Misiones, Argentina

RUBINSTEIN S; SCHURR, TG; BADANO, I; NARDARI W; ZINOVICH, JB; GALUPPO, JA; BOS PD; GONZALEZ J; PICCONI, MA; TONON, SA

Philadelphia

Jornada; Seventy-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists; 2007

American Association of Physical Anthropologists

In the Misiones Province of Argentina, home to indigenous Guarani populations, cervical cancer caused by the human papillovirus (HPV) is considered an endemic disease, with an infection rate of 35 out of every 100,000 indigenous women. This rate far exceeds the national average of 5 out of every 100,000 women. To better understand the epidemiology of this disease, and to assess possible associations between viral infection and genetic background, we examined mtDNA diversity in 178 women from Misiones. Of the 91 Guarani individuals examined, 99% had Native American mtDNA lineages (haplogroups A, B, C, D) and 63% tested positive for HPV, with 49% of these HPV-positive persons having viral type HPV 16, the most prevalent of the invasive carcinomas (Tonon et al. 2000). By contrast, among the 74 individuals identified as white, 70% had Native American mtDNA lineages and 54% tested positive for HPV, with 45% of them having HVP 16. While none of the 13 Criollas tested positive for HPV, 69% had Native American mtDNA lineages. West Eurasian lineages comprised the remainder of the mtDNAs, with hg H and U being mostly commonly seen. These data will be used to statistically measure the correlation between HPV prevalence/viral type and maternally inherited genetic ancestry among Guarani women to determine both epidemiologic and genetic risk factors associated with cervical cancer incidence and Progression in this population.