Distinctive distribution of HPV16 E6 D25E and E7 N29S intratypic Asian variants in Korean commercial sex workers

The distribution of HPV16 sequence variations differs geographically and specific HPV16 E6 and E7 variants might carry a high risk for development of invasive cervical cancer and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in a given population. To investigate the genetic variation of HPV 16 E6 and E7 genes, genomic DNAs from 56 HPV16-infected commercial sex workers were extracted from their cervical swabs by using DNA isolation kit. The E6 and E7 coding region (34-880) with HPV16 E6/E7 specific PCR were amplified and analyzed by using the DNAstar software. At the nucleotide level, 26 variants of the HPV16 E6 and E7 genes were identified including 12 silent mutations. At the amino acid level, the isolates showed 14 variants including E6 Q14H, E6 D25E, E6 I27R, E6 H78Y, E6 L83V, and E7 N29S. The dominant HPV16 E6 and E7 variants were HPV16 E6 D25E (68%) and HPV16 E7 N29S (73%), respectively, which belong to Asian lineage. Although this study has some limitations such as a small sample size and not enough clinical data, these finding suggests that the distinctive distribution of HPV 16 As-variant E6 D25E and E7 N29S might be associated with geographical dependence rather than disease progression. Further study is needed to determine the clinical and biological effects of these variants.