TITLE:
Detection of human papillomavirus L1 gene DNA fragments in postmortem blood and spleen after Gardasil® vaccination—A case report
AUTHORS:
Sin Hang Lee
KEYWORDS:
Gardasil®; Postmortem; HPV; DNA; Aluminum; Vaccine
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.3 No.8,
December
27,
2012
ABSTRACT: A same-nested PCR was used to re-amplify the amplicon of a hypervariable region of the HPV-16 L1 gene DNA in the postmortem blood and splenic tissue obtained at autopsy of a formerly healthy teenage girl who suffered a sudden unexpected death in sleep 6 months after 3 intramuscular injections of a quadrivalent HPV vaccine, Gardasil?. A full autopsy analysis revealed no cause of death. The HPV-16 gene DNA detected in the postmortem materials was similar to the HPV-16 gene DNA fragments in Gardasil? in that both were in non-B-conformation, requiring nondegenerate GP6 and MY11 primers to re-amplify the PCR amplicon for detection and to generate a template useful for direct DNA sequencing. A sequence excised from the base-calling DNA sequencing electropherogram was analyzed by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) alignment and a 45 - 60 base sequence fully matched with a standard hypervariable region of the HPV-16 L1 gene retrieved from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database validated the correct genotyping for HPV- 16 L1 gene DNA. These naked non-proliferating HPV- 16 L1 gene DNA fragments appeared to be in the macrophages of the postmortem blood and spleen, and were protected from degradation by binding firmly to the particulate aluminum adjuvant used in vaccine formulation. The significance of these HPV DNA fragments of a vaccine origin found in post-mortem materials is not clear and warrants further investigation.