Distribution of human papillomavirus genotypes in women with high-grade cervical intraepithelial lesions and cervical carcinoma and analysis of human papillomavirus-16 genomic variants

Aim To analyze the distribution of high-risk human papil - lomavirus (HR-HPV) genotypes and the diversity of HPV16 genomic variants in Croatian women with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and cervical carci - noma. Methods Tissue biopsy specimens were obtained from 324 women with histopathologically confirmed HSIL or cervical carcinoma, 5 women with low-grade SIL, and 49 women with negative histopathology. HR-HPV DNA was detected with Ampliquality HPV-type nucleic-acid hybrid - ization assay, which identifies 29 different HPV genotypes. HPV-16 genomic variants were analyzed by an in-house se - quencing. Results The most common HPV type in women with HSIL was HPV-16, detected in 127/219 (57.9%) specimens. HPV16 was also the dominant type in squamous cell cervical carcinoma (46/69 or 66.7%) and in adenocarcinoma (18/36 or 50.0%). Out of 378 patients, 360 had HR-HPV (282 sin - gle infections and 79 multiple infections), 3 (0.8%) patients had low-risk HPV, and 15 (4%) tested negative. HPV-16 vari - ants were determined in 130 HPV-16 positive specimens, including 74 HSIL and 46 carcinoma specimens. In HSIL specimens, 41 distinct variants were found, 98.6% belong - ing to the European branch and 1.4% belonging to the African branch. In cervical carcinoma specimens, 95% isolates grouped in 41 variants belonging to the European branch, one isolate (2.5%) belonged to the North American, and one (2.5%) to the Asian-American branch. Conclusion HPV-16, mainly belonging to the European branch, was the most frequent HPV genotype in women from Croatia with histologically confirmed HSIL and cervi - cal cancer

Progress in Prophylactic and Therapeutic EBV Vaccine Development Based on Molecular Characteristics of EBV Target Antigens

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) was discovered in 1964 in the cell line of Burkitt lymphoma and became first known human oncogenic virus. EBV belongs to the Herpesviridae family, and is present worldwide as it infects 95% of people. Infection with EBV usually happens during childhood when it remains asymptomatic; however, in adults, it can cause an acute infection known as infectious mononucleosis. In addition, EBV can cause wide range of tumors with origins in B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes, and NK cells. Its oncogenicity and wide distribution indicated the need for vaccine development. Research on mice and cultured cells as well as human clinical trials have been in progress for a few decades for both prophylactic and therapeutic EBV vaccines. The main targets of the vaccines are EBV envelope glycoproteins such as gp350 and EBV latent genes. The long wait for the EBV vaccine is due to the complexity of the EBV replication cycle and the wide range of its host cells. Although some strategies such as the use of dendritic cells and recombinant Vaccinia viral vectors have shown success, ongoing clinical trials using mRNA-based vaccines as well as new delivery systems as nanoparticles are yet to show the best choice of vaccine target and its production strategy