AVALIAÇÃO FUNCIONAL DE VARIANTES DO ONCOGENE E7 DO PAPILOMAVIRUS HUMANO 16

Cervical cancer is caused by persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In addition to environmental factors, the oncogenicity of HPV is strongly associated with genetic factors of the virus itself such as viral types and variants involved in infection. In particular, polymorphisms in viral oncogenes have been associated with an increased risk of malignant progression. Polymorphisms may lead to altered biological function with clinical consequences. In addition to impairing pRB-mediated cell cycle control, E7 activities include perturbation of the NF-κB pathway affecting an important critical anti-viral cellular pathway. Based on three polymorphisms isolated from clinical samples positive for HPV-16 from Northeast Brazil, our study performed one of the first functional analyzes based on the NF-κB activity of HPV-16 E7 polymorphisms. Additionally, the analysis of mRNA expression levels of the variant E7 gene obtained from cultures of transfected cells was performed. HPV-16 E7 gene variants in which all three polymorphisms are present may exert a strong suppressive effect in