Functional evaluation of human papillomavirus type 31 long control region variants

Persistent infections by high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) are a necessary condition, but not sufficient for cervical cancer development. Genetic variants of HR-HPV appear to be related to the risk of persistent infections. The study performed a functional evaluation of variants of the HPV-31 promoter region (LCR). For this, cloning and subcloning of variants HPV-31/UFPE-21 HPV-31/UFPE-89, HPV-31/UFPE-66, E2 gene and prototype HPV-31 were performed. Transfection with different concentrations of E2 was done and the concentration of 25 ng was determined to be ideal for LCR activation. HPV-31/UFPE-21 and HPV-31/UFPE-89 have a greater ability to alter Nluc reporter gene expression levels and HPV-31/UFPE-66 showed decreased levels of gene expression of Nluc reporter gene compared to control. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the polymorphic LCR regions and the control (p < 0.0001). A more refined profile of variants of HPV-31 and its importance for the prognosis of cervical lesions begins to be drawn.