Adeno-associated virus and development of cervical neoplasia

Evidence from several sources has suggested that adeno-associated virus (AAV) infection might protect against cervical cancer, in part, by interfering with human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced tumorigenesis. Detection of AAV type 2 (AAV-2) DNA in cervical tissues has been reported. However, there have been few in vivo studies of women with cervical HPV infection or neoplasia, and these have reported inconsistent results. Therefore, we used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays targeted to the AAV-2 rep and cap genes to test tissue specimens from women in an epidemiological study of cervical neoplasia in Jamaica. We tested 105 women with low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN-1), 92 women with CIN-3/carcinoma in situ or invasive cancer (CIN-3/CA), and 94 normal subjects. PCR amplification of human β-globin DNA was found in almost all cervical specimens, indicating that these materials were adequate for PCR testing. The prevalence of HPV DNA, determined by HPV L1 consensus primer PCR was, as expected, strongly associated with presence and grade of neoplasia. Each of the AAV PCR assays detected as few as 10 copies of the virus genome. However, none of the 291 cervical specimens from Jamaican subjects tested positive for AAV DNA. Negative AAV PCR results were also obtained in tests of cervical samples from 79 university students in the United States. Exposure to AAV was assessed further by serology. Using a whole virus AAV-2 sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we found no relationship between AAV antibodies and presence or grade of neoplasia in either the Jamaican study subjects or women enrolled in a U.S. cervical cancer case (n = 74) -control (n = 77) study. Overall, the data provide no evidence that AAV infection plays a role in cervical tumorigenesis or that AAV commonly infects cervical epithelial cells.