[Detection of telomerase activity in cervical lesions by non-radioactive telomeric repeat amplification protocol...

Worldwide, the cervical cancer is recognized as the second most common type or malignancy in women. The implementation of the Papanicolaou smear has contributed notably to diminish its morbi-mortality. However, this test has a sensibility of just 80%. The detection of telomerase activity (TA) has been proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic maker of a wide variety of tumors and their precursor lesions. In this study the detection of TA was made from samples of cervical exfoliates and its association with cervical lesions and oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 was evaluated. A total of 32 samples of cervical exfoliates were analyzed, 15 from patients with normal cervices, 9 with squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) and 8 with cervical cancer. In this last group the TA, detected by the non-radioactive Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP), was present in 88% of the cases and in 11% of the cases with SIL. None of the 15 samples of normal cervices was positive for the detection of the telomerase. 75% of the cervical exfoliates with TA showed amplifications of HPV type 16, HPV type 18 or both. These results are consistent with studies that point out a narrow relationship between oncogenic HPV and the presence of TA in human keratinocytes and consolidate the detection potential of this enzyme in the discovery of cervical alterations, especially when the technique is applied as a complementary tool of the clinical-citologic exam.