Objectives
The Post Synaptic density protein-95/Drosophila disc large/Zonula occludens (PDZ) domain binding motif of human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 correlates with malignant transformation for high risk HPV. Recent evidence in our lab has shown that HPV16 E6 binds and degrades PTPN13 in a PDZ binding motif-dependent manner in HPV-positive head and neck squamous cell cancer. The loss of PTPN13 results in invasive growth when combined with Ras expression. The purpose of this study is to investigate PTPN13 expression in normal and malignant cervical epithelial cells, and to evaluate its role in cervical cancer.