Kingston University London, Cancer theme, School of Life Science, Pharmacy and Chemistry, SEC Faculty, Kingston upon Thames, KT12EE, London, UK.
Kingston Hospital- Breast Surgery Department, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7QB, London, UK.
Sci Rep. 2017 Feb 27;7:43591. doi: 10.1038/srep43591.
Infection by human papillomaviruses (HPVs) has been implicated in the aetiology of a variety of cancers. Studies evaluating the presence of HPVs in breast cancer (BC) have generated considerable controversy. To date, most studies have focused on the presence of viral DNA in BC; however there are important gaps in evidencing the role of HPV persistence in the invasiveness of BC. While these studies have been conducted in several countries, none, on the presence and biological activity of high risk (HR) HPV in BC has been done in the UK. Hence, we aimed to investigate these gaps by screening a total of 110 fresh breast tissue specimens from UK patients for the presence of twelve HR-HPV types DNA using PCR and Sanger sequencing. Samples positive for HPV-DNA were screened for viral oncoprotein expression using western blot and dot blot. Data obtained showed the presence of HR-HPVs in 42% of breast tissues of which the viral activity was only confirmed in a number of invasive carcinomas (5/26). This finding, the first to report in the UK, suggests that the selective expression of viral oncoprotein in invasive cases may propose a role for HR-HPVs in the development of some types of BC.
人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）感染与多种癌症的病因有关。评估 HPV 在乳腺癌（BC）中的存在的研究引发了相当大的争议。迄今为止，大多数研究都集中在 BC 中病毒 DNA 的存在上；然而，HPV 持续存在在 BC 侵袭性中的作用的证据存在重要空白。虽然这些研究在多个国家进行，但在英国，尚无关于 HR-HPV 在 BC 中的存在和生物学活性的研究。因此，我们旨在通过使用 PCR 和 Sanger 测序，共筛选 110 例来自英国患者的新鲜乳腺组织标本，以筛查 12 种 HR-HPV 类型 DNA 的存在，来研究这些空白。使用 Western blot 和斑点印迹法对 HPV-DNA 阳性样本进行病毒致癌蛋白表达的筛选。获得的数据显示，HR-HPV 在 42%的乳腺组织中存在，其中仅在少数浸润性癌中证实了病毒活性（5/26）。这一发现是英国的首次报告，表明病毒致癌蛋白在浸润性病例中的选择性表达可能表明 HR-HPV 在某些类型的 BC 发展中起作用。
