Relevance of HPV mRNA detection in a population of ASCUS plus women using the NucliSENS EasyQ® HPV assay

Summary Background DNA- and mRNA-based assays are the main tools used for detecting human papillomavirus (HPV) nucleic acid in clinical samples. A recent tool, NucliSENS EasyQ HPV, uses a new concept to directly detect the expression of HPV oncogenic factors (E6 and E7) from the most prevalent HPV genotypes in cervical cancer (16, 18, 31, 33 and 45). Objectives The primary aim of the study is to assess the accuracy of NucliSENS EasyQ HPV in detecting high-risk (HR) HPV in a population of atypical cells of undetermined significance/low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion/high-grade squamous lesion (ASCUS/LSIL/HSIL) patients using a clinical cut-off of a cervical dysplasia (CIN2+) histology. The secondary aim is to compare this mRNA-based assay with the DNA-based hybrid capture II (HCII) assay. Study design The study population comprised 140 women referred for colposcopy and histology. NucliSENS EasyQ HPV test, hybrid capture II (HCII) test and linear array (LA) test were assessed on all samples. All the tests were performed on the samples collected in PreservCyt liquid media for liquid-based cytology (ThinPrep Pap test). Results The clinical specificity of the NucliSENS EasyQ HPV was 63% for the detection of CIN2+ or HSIL patients, significantly higher than the specificity of HCII and LA (49% and 45%, respectively, p k  = 0.49) and was good between HCII and LA ( k  = 0.88). HPV 16 was the most-detected type (49% with NucliSENS EasyQ HPV and 56% with LA), and HPV 31 was the second most-detected HPV type (31% with NucliSENS EasyQ HPV and 29% with LA). Conclusions The NucliSENS EasyQ HPV assay has interesting clinical sensitivity and specificity for the detection of HPV types in CIN2+ patients and shows comparable diagnostic values with the HCII DNA assay. This assay allows simultaneous detection of HPV mRNA and determination of the type of the main prevalent oncogenic virus.