Infection, Genetics and Evolution

Volume 28, December 2014, Pages 339–348

Unexpected inverse correlation between Native American ancestry and Asian American variants of HPV16 in admixed Colombian cervical cancer cases

• Esteban A. Lopera^a,
• Armando Baena^a,
• Victor Florez^a,
• Jehidys Montiel^{a, 1},
• Constanza Duque^{b, c},
• Tatiana Ramirez^a,
• Mauricio Borrero^{a, d, e},
• Carlos M. Cordoba^e,
• Fredy Rojas^d,
• Rene Pareja^d,
• Astrid M. Bedoya^{a, f},
• Gabriel Bedoya^b,
• Gloria I. Sanchez^{a, ,}

doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2014.10.014

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Highlights

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The risk of cancer associated to HPV 16 variants seems to be population dependent.

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We evaluated correlation between ancestry and HPV 16 variants distribution in cervical cancer.

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High proportion of Native American ancestry correlated with higher probability of infection with HPV16 E variants.

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There was inverse geographic correlation between Native American ancestry and AA variants.

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Results suggest replacement of AA by E variants in cases with high Native American ancestry.

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Abstract

Background

European (E) variants of HPV 16 are evenly distributed among world regions, meanwhile Non-European variants such as European-Asian (EAs), Asian American (AA) and African (Af) are mostly confined to Eastern Asia, The Americas and African regions respectively. Several studies have shown that genetic variation of HPV 16 is associated with the risk of cervical cancer, which also seems to be dependent on the population. This relationship between ethnicity and variants have led to the suggestion that there is co-evolution of variants with humankind. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between the individual ancestry proportion and infection with HPV 16 variants in cervical cancer.

Methods

We examined the association between ancestry and HPV 16 variants in samples of 82 cervical cancer cases from different regions of Colombia. Individual ancestry proportions (European, African and Native American) were estimated by genotyping 106 ancestry informative markers. Variants were identified by PCR amplification of the E6 gene, followed by reverse line blot hybridization (RLB) with variants specific probes.

Results

Overall European (E) and Asian American (AA) variants frequency was 66.5% and 33.5% respectively. Similar distribution was observed in cases with higher proportions of European or African ancestry. A higher Native American ancestry was significantly associated with higher frequency of E variants (median ancestry > 23.6%, Age and place of birth adjusted OR: 3.55, 95% CI: 1.26–10.03, p = 0.01). Even further, an inverse geographic correlation between Native American ancestry and frequency of infections with AA variants was observed (ρ = −0.825, p = 0.008). Regions with higher proportion of Native American ancestry had a lower frequency of AA variants of HPV 16.

Conclusions

This study suggests replacement of AA variants by E variants of human papillomavirus 16 in cervical cancer cases with high Native American ancestry.

Keywords

• Human papillomavirus 16;
• HPV variants;
• Genetic ancestry;
• Cervical cancer;
• Admixture;
• Colombia

Corresponding author at: Cra 51D No 62-29 Lab 219, School of Medicine, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. Tel.: +57 (4) 2196066.

1

Current address: Grupo Malaria, Sede de Investigación Universitaria, Universidad de Antioquia, UdeA, Calle 70 No 52-21, Medellín, Colombia.

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.