HIV infection increases the risk of squamous intra‐epithelial lesions in women with HPV infection: An analysis of HPV genotypes

Abstract

We assessed the association between different HPV genotypes, HIV infection, and cervical squamous intra‐epithelial lesions (SIL) in 236 women with known HIV serostatus enrolled in a longitudinal multicentric study in Italy. Of these women, 135 were HIV‐infected, and were not markedly different from HIV‐negative women with regard to demographic characteristics, sexual practices, smoking, or intravenous drug use. We obtained 232 cervical smears suitable for cytological examination and HPV‐genotype analysis (134 from HIV‐positive women and 98 from HIV‐negative women). For 86 HIV‐positive and 89 HIV‐negative women, the smears appeared normal at cytomorphological analysis. Cytological dysplasia of varying degrees was detected in 48 smears from HIV‐positive women and in 9 from HIV‐negative women. HPV prevalence, assessed using polymerase‐chain‐reaction analysis, did not significantly differ between HIV‐positive and HIV‐negative women. The prevalence of HPV‐associated SIL was much greater among HIV‐infected women. The most frequently detected genotypes in both groups were HPV 16 and HPV 18. The prevalence of HPV 16 among HIV‐positive women was similar to that for HIV‐negative women; this was also true for HPV 18. However, in the HIV‐positive group, most of these genotypes were associated with SIL. HIV‐positive women showed a wider spectrum of genotypes, including non‐oncogenic and rare types. An association between SIL and HIV infection was confirmed for all HPV genotype classes. Int. J. Cancer 72:982–986, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

A longitudinal study of HPV detection and cervical pathology in HIV infected women

“…This agrees with a study from New York 5 which showed a higher prevalence of HPV in HIV seropositive women, while a similar HPV prevalence in both HIV positive and negative women was reported recently in an Italian study. 16 The principal test used in this study was a second generation HCA, which in our hands and in other studies has been shown to have comparable sensitivity to PCR. Clavel et al 17 recently suggested that viral load estimated by HCA was not a reliable indicator of high grade lesions.…”

Frequency and multiplicity of human papillomavirus infection in HIV-1 positive women in Italy

“…The first recognition of HPV genotype performed by RsaI was confirmed by further treatments with PstI, HaeIII, BamHI, Sau 3aI and HinfI restriction enzymes. 8,9 In samples displaying complex or undetermined RFLP pattern, HPV typing was achieved by CLART2 (Genomica, Madrid, Spain). This method uses biotinylated primers that amplify a 450-bp fragment within L1 region.…”

Postmodern cancer: the role of human immunodeficiency virus in uterine cervical cancer

“…10 Some have found this to be dependent on the severity of immune compromise, whereas others have noted HIV infection to be an independent risk factor. [11][12][13][14][15][16] Coinfection with HIV and HPV would be expected in view of similar risk profiles, including multiple sexual partners, early age of first coitus, sex with men who have had multiple partners, low socioeconomic status, and low usage rates of barrier contraceptives. However, an alternative explanation is mutually enhanced transmissibility.…”