[Effects of hnRNP E1 and both early genes E2 and E6 of HPV16 together with their interactions on cervical...

Objective: To explore the effects of hnRNP E1 and both early genes E2 and E6 of HPV16 as well as their interactions in the progression of cervical carcinogenesis. Methods: Subjects of this study included 56 women with normal cervix (NC), 58 patients with low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CINⅠ) and 50 patients with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CINⅡ/Ⅲ) who were all recruited from the 'Cervical Lesions Study Cohort Project' in Jiexiu of Shanxi province from June to September, 2014. Another 40 patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were from the Shanxi Tumor Hospital during the same period. Information related to cervical lesions were collected, using a structured questionnaire, with cervical tissues and cervical exfoliated cells gathered from all the participants. HPV infection was detected by flow-through hybridization, while the levels of expression on hnRNP E1, HPV16 E2 and E6 protein were measured by Western Blot. Kruskal-Wallis H test, χ(2) test, trend χ(2) test were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software, while interaction was evaluated by generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR). Results: The overall infection rates of HPV16 related to CINⅠ (15.52%, 9/58), CINⅡ/Ⅲ (40.00%, 20/50) and SCC (67.50%, 27/40) groups were all higher than that of the NC group (8.93%, 5/56) and with an increasing trend on the severity of cervical lesions (trend χ(2)=43.613, P<0.001). The levels of expression on hnRNP E1 protein were significantly different in the groups with different cervical lesions (H=9.98, P=0.019), showing a decreasing trend with the severity of cervical lesions (trend χ(2)=9.495, P=0.002). The levels of expression on HPV16 E2 (H=16.20, P=0.001) and HPV16 E6 (H=15.44, P=0.001) were significantly different in groups with different cervical lesions. Results of GMDR showed that the best interaction model in both groups of CINⅡ/Ⅲ and SCC appeared as hnRNP E1 low expression, HPV16 E2 low expression and HPV16 E6 high expression. However, no similar interaction was seen in CINⅠ (P>0.05). Conclusions: Both low expressions of hnRNP E1 and abnormal expression of HPV16 E2 and E6 could increase the risk of high-grade CIN and cervical cancer. It seemed that they might have an important synergistic effect on the progression of cervical cancer.