Metabolic reprogramming is typical in cancerous cells and is required for proliferation and cellular survival. In addition, oncoproteins of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) are involved in this process. This study evaluated the relationship between glucose transporter I (GLUT1), lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), and monocarboxylate transporter type 4 (MCT4) expression and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and invasive cervical carcinoma (ICC) with HR-HPV infection. The protein expression was evaluated in women with CIN I (n=20), CIN II/III (n=16), or ICC (n=24) by immunohistochemistry. The protein expression was analyzed qualitatively by van Zummeren score and quantitatively by Image ProPlus 6 software. LDHA expression increases in HPV-16 infection. In the CIN I group, GLUT1 immunostaining has a 35% protein expression at the membrane level at more than two thirds of the epithelium, which increased by 21.25% more in CIN II/III in more than two thirds of the epithelium. While LDHA and MCT4 in CIN I mostly do not present immunostaining, or this was only limited to the basal stratum, this expression is increased in CIN II/III and ICC cases. The GLUT1, LDHA, and MCT4 expression increased in ICC. The overexpression in high-grade CIN with HR-HPV infection shows a higher risk for cervical carcinoma progression.
Keywords: HPV; altered expression; biomarker prognosis; cervical cancer.