ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1634297

This article is part of the Research TopicInterplay of Epigenetic Regulation and Cellular Metabolism in Cancer MicroenvironmentsView all 9 articles

The diagnostic of PAX1 gene methylation in cervical lesions and its role in the triage of non-16/18 HR-HPV positive

Provisionally accepted
Meng-Meng ChenMeng-Meng Chen1,2Bingqiang ZhangBingqiang Zhang1,2Yan-Song LuanYan-Song Luan1Guo-Long SunGuo-Long Sun1Yunyuan ZhangYunyuan Zhang3Xiaoyan ZhouXiaoyan Zhou3Xi-Feng ZhangXi-Feng Zhang4Feng-Chun GaoFeng-Chun Gao5*Junmei YuJunmei Yu1*
  • 1Qingdao Restore Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd., Qingdao, China
  • 2Key Laboratory of Cancer and Immune Cells of Qingdao, Qingdao, China
  • 3Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
  • 4College of Veterinary Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
  • 5Department of Obstetrics, Jinan Materlity and Child care Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China

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Objective: This study aims to systematically evaluate the application value of PAX1 gene methylation detection in cervical lesion screening and its potential advantages in the triage of non-16/18 high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) positive patients.study enrolled 1,619 HPV-positive female patients who visited the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from December 2023 to March 2025, with 989 patients ultimately meeting the inclusion criteria. All subjects underwent HPV-DNA testing, cytological examination, colposcopy, and PAX1 gene methylation detection, with results analyzed in conjunction with histopathological evaluations. HPV-DNA detection was performed using fluorescence quantitative PCR methodology capable of identifying 17 high-risk HPV genotypes. Cytological examination results were classified according to the International Society of Cytology standards. PAX1 gene methylation detection employed fluorescence quantitative PCR technology with ACTB as the internal reference gene, determining methylation levels through calculation of Δ CT values. Statistical analyses included ROC curve assessment of diagnostic performance, with intergroup comparisons conducted using one-way analysis of variance and Pearson's chi-squared test. Results ： The results demonstrated that PAX1 gene methylation detection showed significantly better diagnostic performance compared to cytological examination for the detection of CIN2+ and CIN3+ lesions. The AUC values for PAX1 gene methylation detection in diagnosing CIN2+and CIN3+ were 0.934 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.916 -0.948) with sensitivity of 93.49% and specificity of 93.24%and0.875 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.853 -0.895)with sensitivity of 95.31% and specificity of 79.77%. Among non-16/18 HR-HPV(in women positive for high-risk HPV types other than 16/18) positive patients, PAX1 gene methylation detection demonstrated higher sensitivity and specificity than cytological examination, enabling more accurate identification of patients requiring further intervention and reducing unnecessary colposcopy referrals. Furthermore, in HR-HPV positive patients

Keywords: cervical cancer, Methylation, Pax1, HR-HPV, TCT

Received: 24 May 2025; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Zhang, Luan, Sun, Zhang, Zhou, Zhang, Gao and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Feng-Chun Gao, Department of Obstetrics, Jinan Materlity and Child care Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
Junmei Yu, Qingdao Restore Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd., Qingdao, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material