Molecular Identification of Human Papilloma Virus in Tissue Samples from Patients with Cervical Cancer by Multiplex PCR Method

Contamination with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most important risk factors for developing cervix cancer. Since there is no possibility of detecting the virus and its subtypes by using current biochemical and serological methods and cell culture, the molecular methods such as multiplex PCR have particular importance in accurate, early and definite diagnosis of this virus. So, in this research, our goal is to use a proprietary multiplex PCR assay based on HPV-16 and HPV-18 of human papillomavirus for molecular recognition of HPV and to evaluate its prevalence in cervix cancer patients.
In this experimental study, after collecting samples from malignant cervical lesions of the 60 patients, the viral DNA was extracted and multiplex PCR was done by specific primers of human papillomavirus in all samples. After the analysis of multiplex PCR products by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, specificity of the test was also evaluated.
Among 60 samples, 19 cases were confirmed to be positive for HPV contamination and 41 cases were negative. So the prevalence of HPV contamination was reported 30% in this population.
This study showed that Multiplex PCR by specific primers for HPV-16 and HPV-18 of human papilloma virus is a proper and accurate method for detection of this virus and the results also confirm the previous reports of correlation between HPV and cervical carcinoma in iranian population.