genotyping hpv

Dear DECAN,

I think your confusing Qiagens HPVfast assay which I think they now call HPVcare and the H-C2 assay, with the new Qiagen genotyping assay, details of which was published in December 2008 (See Ref below).
The presentation link is from FEB 2008 and just mentions the development of the genotyping assay.

The new genotyping assay incorporates some of the technology used in the HPVcare assay for sample extraction, using paramagnetic beads, which will be very useful for automation and is better than standard extraction methods for HPV samples with multiple infections. It’s really a good trick as it only isolates HPV viral DNA.
The extracted samples undergo PCR followed by a bead hybridisation reaction to Luminex X-map beads and are readout using a Luminex flow cytometer.
The assay is capable of genotyping 17 high-risk HPV samples.

The paper is very thorough in its analysis of the results, comparing the new genotyping assay with the HC-2 assay. From the results, of 603 samples tested only 26 were discrepant of which only one could not be explained by further analysis.

Qiagen propose to use the genotyping assay as a reflex assay, that is, if they have a positive sample from the HC-2 screening assay it can be further tested by the genotyping assay using the same sample. The idea is not to use an expensive genotyping assay as a primary screen for HPV negative samples, but there is no other reason why it could not be used as a primary screen.

It’s not possible to directly compare the Qiagen genotyping assay to the GBI assay because GBI have not published any results for the Paptype assay in the scientific literature.
The company has done a 100 sample trial (I think) and claim to be as good as the HC-2 assay but the sample size is probably too small to draw any conclusions and no details or statistical analysis have been published in the literature (as far as I know).

You would think the new Qiagen assay, which basically does the same thing as GBI’s assay, only probably better, would have to be a worry for GBI. Especially since Qiagen seem to a bit further along with published data and intend to release the assay early this year?

It’s remarkable to see how similar the two techniques are (Who’s been talking to who? Joke.). The basic hybridisation techniques and GP5+/6+ PCR must be in the public domain?

REF:
A novel method of HPV genotyping using Hybrid Capture((R)) sample preparation methodcombined with GP5+/6+ PCR and multiplex detection on Luminex((R)) XMAP((R)).
Nazarenko I, Kobayashi L, Giles J, Fishman C, Chen G, Lorincz A.
Journal of Virological Methods. 2008 Dec;154(1-2):76-81. Epub 2008 Oct 22.

Cheers.

P.S. You know they say the only thing in BRW you should believe is the date