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Cell-mediated immunity directed against human papillomavirus 16 (HPV-16) antigens was studied in six patients affected with grade 3 vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN3, also known as bowenoid papulosis). Five of the patients presented with a chronic and persistent disease that relapsed after destructive treatments. They showed no detectable anti-HPV blood T-cell responses and no T-cell intraepidermal vulvar infiltrate containing both CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes. The last patient had a complete clearance of viral lesions, 8 months after disease onset and 2 months after electrocoagulation of <50% of the VIN3 lesions. She showed high frequency anti-E6 and anti-E7 effector blood T cells by ex vivo ELISpot-IFNgamma assay before clinical regression. Immunohistochemical study of her vulvar biopsy revealed a marked dermal infiltrate containing a majority of CD4+ T lymphocytes and an epidermal infiltrate made up of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. This seems to be the first evidence of an association between spontaneous regression of VIN3 lesions and HPV-specific T-cell responses detectable in the blood. Hence, an increase of HPV-specific effector T lymphocyte responses by vaccine-based therapeutic strategies might be useful to clear the lesions in bowenoid papulosis disease.

Background & Aims: Recent studies have suggested that esophageal human papillomavirus infection could be a risk factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of human papillomavirus DNA sequences in the esophagus of French patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma., Methods: Multiplex polymerase chain reactions with consensus primers directed to the L1 gene or specific primers for human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, and 33 directed to E6 gene (40 cycles followed by restriction mapping of the amplified products) were used to determine the presence of human papillomavirus DNA sequences in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (n = 75), normal adjacent mucosa (n = 49), and metastatic lymphadenopathies (n = 5). As an internal control, a target located in the embryonic myosin heavy-chain gene was used in each reaction., Results: Human papillomavirus DNA sequences could not be detected in any of the tumoral samples, the normal adjacent mucosa, or the metastatic lymphadenopathies., Conclusions: Human papillomavirus seems not to be implicated in esophageal carcinogenesis, at least in French patients, because the viral genomes are not associated with esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

Background: Cancer of the cervix is still a deadly disease. Since the finding of an association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical carcinoma, the development of a reliable means of detecting viral DNA in cervical scrapes has become a priority. We have used the polymerase chain reaction to detect DNA from HPV types 16 and 18 in cervical scrapes., Experimental Design: We designed a protocol that minimizes manipulation steps and improves control of the reaction. Our technique involves elaboration of a unique reaction mixture (core reagent) containing all reagents except Taq polymerase. Each cervical sample from controls and patients treated during the same experiment, received an aliquot of this core reagent, with the DNA polymerase added just before dispensing. The results of the amplification are visualized on a polyacrylamide gel stained with ethidium bromide. Positive results for viral DNA are confirmed by restriction mapping of the amplified products. We used HeLa cells as the positive control for HPV 18 and negative control for HPV 16 and SiHa cells for the reciprocal controls. As an internal control, we used a target in the exon 3 of the human embryonic myosin heavy chain gene., Results: The polymerase chain reaction in our experiments assure a sensitivity at least equal to two copies of target per cell. We analyzed 120 cervical smears with normal cytology; only 4% gave a positive result for HPV 16. We did not detect any HPV 18 DNA., Conclusions: This prevalence, which is among the lowest reported in the literature to date, supports the concept that HPV detection may have value in aiding the prevention of cervical cancer.