Affiliation:
1. Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, NRS Medical College, Kolkata, India
2. Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Malda Medical College, Malda, India
Abstract
The objective was to detect the viral marker HPV16 L1 capsid protein in cervical neoplasia to analyse its association with different grades of cervical lesions and its implication as a prognostic marker. Detection of L1 capsid protein of HPV16 by immunostaining was done using anti-HPV16 mouse monoclonal antibody against L1 fusion protein in cervical scraping or biopsy specimens obtained from the subjects. Total 84 cases of cervical cancerous lesions in a graded spectrum were observed for expression of L1 capsid protein of HPV16, among which 30 cases showed L1 expression and 54 cases did not. The expression rates of L1 protein among ASCUS, ASC-H, LSIL and HSIL were 33.33%, 62.50%, 80% and 36.36% respectively. Among invasive lesions, the L1 expression rates were 23.53%, 14.29% and 7.69% in well, moderately and poorly differentiated SCC respectively. Overall the L1 positivity rate was 35.71%. The expression of L1 proteins decreased with increase in lesion grade. This declining trend of L1 positivity rate with increasing grade of lesion was extremely significant (p value for chi squared for trend is 0.0002). The difference of L1 expression between preinvasive and invasive group was also significant (p<0.0001).Expression of L1 capsid protein of HPV16 was high in lower grade preinvasive lesions and it steadily declined with increasing grade of lesion. Therefore, detection of viral marker HPV16 L1 Protein can be used as a prognostic tool and a marker of immune response against HPV16.