A metabolite profiling method for diagnosis of precancerous cervical lesions and HPV persistence

The data collected from the analysis on the portable Advion CMS were treated in exactly the same way as the data collected from the Waters LCT and although the mass resolution and sensitivity of the two instruments is different the same clustering patterns were seen in the PCA scores plots. The PCA loadings plots also showed the same patterns with the same major 385.4 mass bin responsible for the separation of the classes seen in the scores plots.

The findings are important because they suggest that metabolite profiling could offer an accurate, and time-effective tool for identifying women at increased risk of HPV persistence. Current screening for cervical cancer risk relies, as a first step, on a cytological assessment which can be difficult to classify at the low-grade end of cervical cell abnormality and currently there is no screening tool for predicting HPV persistence. Metabolite profiling therefore has the potential to improve existing screening methods for cell abnormality and to supplement information about HPV positivity; the critically important risk factor for cervical cancer.

From Bioanalysis, Published May 2017