mRNA sequencing of oropharyngeal cancer cell lines

mRNA sequencing was performed on oropharyngeal cancer cell lines including 4 HPV-positive and 4 HPV-negative lines. Two lines (CUOP2 and CUOP3) were newly derived from HPV-positive tonsil cancers (derivation is described in "Sensitivity to inhibition of DNA repair by Olaparib in novel oropharyngeal cancer cell lines infected with Human Papillomavirus" by Pirotte et al. This work was undertaken with the aims of quantifying levels of HPV gene transcription and identifying human:viral fusion transcripts arising from integrated viral sequences. We also wished to compare expression of genes involved in DNA damage responses between HPV positive and negative cell lines. The published analyses showed expression of HPV encoded genes in all of the HPV-positive cell lines, and the presence of fusion transcripts derived from integrated virus. We did not identify any obvious correlation between expression of DNA repair genes and HPV status. mRNA sequencing was performed in the 8 cell lines. Cells were grown in standard conditions, mRNA was extracted, and a single sequencing run was undertaken for each line.