The dysregulation of microarray gene expression in cervical cancer is associated with overexpression of a unique messenger RNA signature

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the fourth most common cause of cervical cancer (CC). The aim of the present study was to investigate gene expression levels of previously identified transcriptional signatures for malignant and non-malignant CC.

To validate of previously analyzed microarray gene expression data, we selected two hub genes (CDK1 and PLK1) and four differentially expressed mRNAs that were common in pre-malignant-normal and malignant-pre-malignant networks (SMS, NNT, UHMK1 and DEPDC1). To this purpose, the study included women diagnosed histologically with malignant CC (n=15), pre-malignant (n=15), and normal subjects (n=15). The expression of six host genes and viral E6/E7 genes were measured by quantitative Real-Time PCR.

The results showed higher expression of CDK1/PLK1 hub genes and SMS, NNT and UHMK1 genes in malignant CC group than non-malignant CC group and normal group. A positive correlation was observed between gene expression of viral E6/E7 oncogenes and UHMK1 gene.

Dysregulation of several mRNA signatures are a common feature of CC and can be potentially used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as can be applied to therapeutic targets for CC treatment.