Current Perspectives in Human Papilloma Virus: Where We are and What We Need?

Abstract

It is now well-established that Human Papilloma Viruses (HPV) are responsible for causing >90% of cervical cancers. Existing evidences have also demonstrated a key role for HPV in a portion of Head and Neck cancers as well as carcinomas of Vulva, Vagina, Penis and Anus. Therefore studies aiming at developing highly sensitive diagnostic methods have become high-priority in the recent years. To date, an estimated 202 types of HPV have been identified, of which only a small percentage viruses are involved in carcinogenesis. Among the carcinogenic HPV, the most predominant ones are HPV 16 and HPV 18. The other high risk types are 31, 33, 34, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, and 70. In general, HPV is detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybrid capture (HC) methods. However, the existing PCR methods specifically identify only HPV 16 and HPV 18, but not the other types. More over, the PCR protocols are known for errors, and are not suitable for on-field screening procedures, hence, a suitable much quicker and sensitive method is required at the earliest. More over, the PCR and HC methods are expensive, hence, require more funds to conduct public health screening campaigns. Therefore, in this book chapter we have made an attempt to address the recent developments in HPV screening methods, and covered various advanced procedures available in the literature to identify HPV in patient specimens. For example, a section is dedicated to cover the “Biosensors”, which have been developed in detecting the HPV DNA in body fluids. These devices are much simpler compared to sequencing technologies and likely to be the next-generation detection devices for HPV