title: Human papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr virus co-infection in cervical carcinoma in Algerian women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite the fact that the implication of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the carcinogenesis and prognosis of cervical cancer is well established, the impact of a co-infection with high risk HPV (HR-HPV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is still not fully understood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty eight randomly selected cases of squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the uterine cervix, 14 normal cervices specimens, 21 CIN-2/3 and 16 CIN-1 cases were examined for EBV and HPV infections. Detection of HR-HPV specific sequences was carried out by PCR amplification using consensus primers of Manos and by Digene Hybrid Capture. The presence of EBV was revealed by amplifying a 660 bp specific EBV sequence of BALF1. mRNA expression of LMP-1 in one hand and protein levels of BARF-1, LMP-1 and EBNA-1 in the other hand were assessed by RT-PCR and immunoblotting and/or immunohischemistry respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HR-HPV infection was found in patients with SCC (88%), low-grade (75%) and high grade (95%) lesions compared to only 14% of normal cervix cases. However, 69%, 12.5%, 38.1%, and 14% of SCC, CIN-1, CIN-2/3 and normal cervix tissues, respectively, were EBV infected. The highest co-infection (HR-HPV and EBV) was found in squamous cell carcinoma cases (67%). The latter cases showed 27% and 29% expression of EBV BARF-1 and LMP-1 oncogenes respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The high rate of HR-HPV and EBV co-infection in SCC suggests that EBV infection is incriminated in cervical cancer progression. This could be taken into account as bad prognosis in this type of cancer. However, the mode of action in dual infection in cervical oncogenesis needs further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Virologie Moléculaire, UMR5537, C,N,R,S, Faculté de Médecine R,T,H, Laennec, Lyon, France. tadamasa.ooka@univ-lyon1.fr.
authors.forename: Abdelhalim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khenchouche
authors.forename: Nabila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sadouki
authors.forename: Arab
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boudriche
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Houali
authors.forename: Abdelaziz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Graba
authors.forename: Tadamasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ooka
authors.forename: Abdelmadjid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouguermouh
mesh_terms: D000462:Algeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000821:virology*; D060085:Coinfection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral