Amplification of human papillomavirus DNA sequences by using conserved primers

The polymerase chain reaction has potential for use in the detection of small amounts of human papillomavirus (HPV) viral nucleic acids present in clinical specimens. However, new HPV types for which no probes exist would remain undetected by using type-specific primers for the polymerase chain reaction before hybridization. Primers corresponding to highly conserved HPV sequences may be useful for detecting low amounts of known HPV DNA as well as new HPV types. Here we analyze a pair of primers derived from conserved sequences within the E1 open reading frame for HPV sequence amplification by using the polymerase chain reaction. The longest perfect homology among HPV sequences is a 12-mer within the first exon of E1M. A region of conserved amino acids coded by the E1 open reading frame allowed the detection of another highly conserved region about 850 base pairs downstream. Two 21-mers derived from these conserved regions were used to amplify sequences from all HPV DNAs used as templates. The amplified DNA was shown to be specific for HPV sequences within the E1 open reading frame. DNA from HPVs whose sequences were not available were amplified by using these two primers. HPV DNA sequences in clinical specimens could also be amplified with the primers.