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December 03-04, 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal
Public Health, Women's Health, Nursing and Hospital Management
Page 66
Joint Event
Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education | ISSN : 2161-0711 | Volume 08
Correlation of hTERT expression with cervical cytological abnormalities and human papillomavirus infection
Vjosa A. Zejnullahu
University Clinical Center of Kosovo, Kosovo
Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) is the main catalytic sub-unit of telomerase, a reverse transcrip¬tase enzyme. Telomerase
expression is regulated at many levels, with numerous studies suggesting that up-regulation of human TERT gene (hTERT) at transcriptional
level results in immortal cell phenotype associated with cancer. The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between hTERT
expression and different cervical precursor lesions, as well as with cervical cancer in patients with confirmed Human papillomavirus (HPV)
infection.
The study included molecular analyzes on cervical samples from 214 women and matched Papanicolaou (Pap) test results. HPV detection
and genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genotyping. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed
using TaqMan probes and were calculated relative to the reference gene.
Results showed significantly increased hTERT mRNA expression levels in high-grade and low-grade lesions compared to normal control
samples (p<0.01) associated with 6.31 fold higher risk for developing ASC-US and 9.20 for LSIL. Strong correlation between HPV
infection and hTERT expression in the high-grade lesions and cervical cancer was also observed. hTERT relative expression values showed
98% specificity and 100 % sensitivity as indicator of cervical lesions particularly for the ACS-H, HSIL and cervical cancer.
In conclusion, hTERT expression correlates with the cytological grade of the cervical lesions and HPV infection and has a potential to be
used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker
vjosazejnullahu@gmail.comJ Community Med Health Educ 2018, Volume:8
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C7-051