Effects of human papillomavirus type--specific antisense oligonucleotides on the proliferation of cervical cancer cells containing papillomavirus type 16

Objective: To investigate the effects of antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides (S--ODNs ) on theproliferation of cervical cancer cell line SiHa, which harbor HPV16. Methods: Three different antisenseoligodeoxynucleotides were used in this study. Two of them, S--ODN1 (AE6 ) and S--ODN2 (AE7 ), arecomplementary to sequences flanking the start codons of HPV16 E6 and E7 open reading frames,respectively. SODN3 is a nonsense sequence. SiHa cells were treated with various concentrations of oligos. Growth assay and 3HTdR incorporation were used. Results: Both AE6 and AE7 markedly inhibited the proliferation and DNA synthesisof SiHa cells which harbor HPV16 but had little effects on HeLa cells that do not. S--ODN3 had none of theseeffects. Conclusion: Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides can inhibit the proliferation and DNA synthesis of HPV16positive human cervical cancer cells.