Comprehensive meta-analytical summary on human papillomavirus association with head and neck cancer.

An etiological role of high risk human papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of cervical cancer has been well established. Hence, attention of researchers has been focused on the role of HPV in pathogenesis of other malignancies, such as head and neck cancers. An analysis of epidemiological data on the prevalence of HPV infection among healthy people and patients with precancerous lesions and/or cancer is an important step in understanding the role of HPV in head and neck carcinogenesis. More and more data de-monstrate the impact of HPV infection on disease outcome. HPV-positive patients have been shown to have better responses to radiotherapy and better overall and disease-free survival than HPV-negative patients. This review presents data of the meta-analysis based on a large number of original studies on HPV prevalence in patients with precancerous lesions and in patients with oral, oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancers as well as findings on the impact of HPV infection on survival of these patients.

Genetic aspects of HPV infection detection in tumor and adjacent tissues of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

The article describes methods for the human papillomavirus (HPV) detection in tumor and adjacent (morphologically intact) tissues of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSSC) in terms of viral pathogenesis. Comparative evaluation of the principles and techniques for HPV detection was performed. Advantages and disadvantages of the HPV detection methods are described. Approaches for DNA and HPV oncoproteins E6-E7 identification are substantiated. The results of our research into the qualitative and quantitative detection of HPV in the tumor and adjacent tissues of patients with Lssc are described. The research was conducted using commercial test systems Amplisens HPV HR screen-titre-FL and Amplisens HPV HR genotype-FL. Based on these results we developed the algorithm of HPV detection in samples of tumor tissue of patients with Lssc. The need for typing HPV-positive tissue samples with low concentration of HPV DNA was discussed.

MicroRNAs and human cancer.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a recently discovered family of short non-coding RNA molecules of about 19-24 nucleotides in length that are involved in regulation of gene expression. These small molecules have been found to regulate genes involved in diverse biological processes such as cell proliferation, development, differentiation, apoptosis and others. MiRNAs regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level either by inhibition of the target (mRNA) or by its destruction. Recent studies have shown that mRNA deregulation is a basic problem in studying pathogenesis of many malignant tumors. It has been recently shown that miRNAs are able to regulate thousands of target genes simultaneously. Thus, the key role of miRNA in carcinogenesis reveals a new layer in the molecular architecture of cancer. Patterns of altered miRNA expression in cancer may serve as molecular biomarkers for tumor diagnosis, prognosis of disease-specific outcomes, and prediction of therapeutic responses. Furthermore, miRNAs may serve as specific targets of new gene therapies.