Evaluation of the expression level of Sine oculis homeobox homolog 1 in cervical cancer tissue in comparison with healthy adjacent tissue

Ehsan Kakavandi¹, Ebrahim Faghihloo², Mahdieh Farzanehpour^{3, 4}, Mohammad Farahmand¹, Mehdi Yaseri⁴, Talat Mokhtari-Azad^{1,* ✉}

1 - Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 - Applied Microbiology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 - Research Center for Clinical Virology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5 - Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence: Talat Mokhtari-Azad

Received: February 17, 2020

Accepted: May 23, 2020

Abstract:

Background and Aim: This study aimed to investigate the expression level of Sine oculis homeobox homolog 1(SIX1) in normal and cancerous cervical tissues. Methods: Real-time PCR was used to evaluate SIX1 expression level in fresh surgically obtained cervical biopsies. Also, cervical specimens were tested for HPV DNA detection by MY09/11, GP5+/6+ nested PCR method. Results: The expression level of SIX1 mRNA in Cervical cancer was markedly higher than in normal cervical tissue (p<0.0001). Moreover, HPV DNA was detected in 100% of cases and 21.05% of controls (P<0.0001). Conclusions: This finding indicates that increased SIX1 expression might be of relevance to the pathogenesis of cervical cancer. Perhaps, studies to find agents that specifically target SIX1, develop novel anti-cancer and anti-metastasis drugs. This idea has to be investigated in future clinical studies.