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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Yeast As a Chassis for Developing Functional Assays to Study Human P53
Published on: August 4, 2019
p53 gene mutations are rare in human papillomavirus-associated colon cancer
Nur Buyru1, Metin Budak, Hulya Yazici
1Molecular Oncology and Hepatopathology Research and Application Cencer, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
Abstract:
Recent studies suggest that infection with high risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common event in colon tumors. Infection by oncogenic HPV may result in functional inactivation of the p53 protein in absence of mutations. Thus far no studies have been made to examine the frequency of p53 mutations in HPV-associated colon cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interrelationship between p53 mutations and HPV infection. The 'hot-spot' region of the p53 gene for mutations was analyzed by PCR-SSCP and direct sequencing in HPV-positive tumor samples. Only 2 mutations were identified in 56 samples. This rate was much lower than reported for sporadic colon tumors. Our results indicate an inverse relationship between p53 mutations and HPV infection and suggest that p53 inactivation caused by HPV infection may play a role in the pathogenesis of colon cancer.
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