To determine the importance and role of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) in the etiology of cervical neoplasia, an epidemiological and a molecular investigation will be conducted of patients with normal cervical cytology; condyloma; cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grades 1, 2, and 3; carcinoma in situ; or invasive cervical carcinoma. (A). The epidemiological study will focus on patients with CIN and normal cytology. Data will be collected from these patients regarding (1) the general characteristics of the patient population: age, race; (2) the distribution of risk factors for cervical cancer -- sexual behavior, use of contraceptives, smoking habits; (3) the histopathological diagnosis and medical history of these patients; (4) the genetic type of HPV(s) found in cervical swabs, aspirates, or biopsy samples; and (5) the progression or recurrence of lesions in the course of this study. These data will be analyzed to compare the demographic and risk factor characteristics of women infected with different HPV types and with different grades of CIN. (B). In the molecular study of HPV infection, biopsy samples obtained from patients in all categories of cervical neoplasia or cell cultures derived therefrom will be analyzed for (1) the presence, genetic type, and state of HPV DNA, (2) expression of HPV mRNA(s) and cloning of their cDNAs in prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression vectors, (3) the presence and functional identity of HPV transformation specific proteins detectable using antisera made to HPV open translation frames expressed in prokaryotic vectors, (4) the activation of known or novel oncogenes and synergism of viral and cellular oncogenes in in vitro transformation, and (5) the evidence for HPV enhancement or trans-activation of viral and cellular gene expression. The molecular studies will provide data concerning the mechanism of HPV expression in cervical neoplasia and allow the correlation of this data with the characteristics of the patient and category of cervical neoplasia.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter