Human Papillomavirus and Chlamydia trachomatis in oral and genital mucosa of women with normal and abnormal cervical cytology

Abstract

Background. STI such as HPV and C.trachomatis are important to public health, because of the high risk of asymptomatic genital or oral infections could lead to complications and coinfections may be an important cofactor for the oncogenic transformation.Objective. Evaluate the prevalence of oral and genital HPV and C.trachomatis infection in women with normal and abnormal cervical cytology.Study design. The cross-sectional study included 200 oral and cervical swabs from 50 women with normal and 50 with abnormal cervical cytology. HPV and C.trachomatis infections were detected using PCR with specific primers. Results. HPV DNA was detected in 27% of women with normal and abnormal cytology. Out of 27 we detected HPV DNA in 18% of genital samples and 14% of oral samples. HPV genotypes detected were genotype 6 of low-risk and 16, 31, 52, 58 and 16-31 coinfection of high-risk. C.trachomatis DNA was detected in 49% of patients, out of 49 we detected C.trachomatis in 35% of genital samples and 31% of oral samples. There is statistically significant (p<0.05) between cytology and HPV and C.trachomatis infection but there is no statistically significant between cytology and the other characteristics.Conclusions. The morphological similarity between oropharyngeal and genital epithelia would allowed us to infer that the infection in one of this mucosa could occur in the other. Therefore, is important C.trachomatis detection and specific treatment in asymptomatic women because it is known that may increase the risk of HPV persistence and coinfection induces a pro-inflammatory environment that may promote the carcinogenesis. This study highlight the importance of identified possible cofactors for oncogenesis.