Human Papillomavirus Infections in Cervical Samples From HIV-Positive Women: Evaluation of the Presence of the Nonavalent HPV Genotypes and Genetic Diversity

Abstract

Non-nonavalent vaccine (9v) Human papillomavirus (HPV) types have been shown to have high prevalence among HIV-positive women. Here, 1444 cervical samples were tested for HPV DNA positivity. Co-infections of the 9v HPV types with other HPV types were evaluated. The HPV81 L1 and L2 genes were used to investigate the genetic variability of antigenic epitopes. HPV-positive samples were genotyped using the HPVCLART2 assay. The L1 and L2 protein sequences were analyzed using a self-optimized prediction method to predict their secondary structure. Co-occurrence probabilities of the 9v HPV types were calculated. Non9v types represented 49% of the HPV infections; 31.2% of the non9v HPV types were among the low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion samples, and 27.3% among the high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion samples, and several genotypes were low risk. The co-occurrence of 9v HPV types with the other genotypes was not correlated with the filogenetic distance. HPV81 showed an amino-acid substitution within the BC loop (N75Q) and the FGb loop (T315N). In the L2 protein, all of the mutations were located outside antigenic sites. The weak cross-protection of the 9v types suggests the relevance of a sustainable and effective screening program, which should be implemented by HPV DNA testing that does not include only high-risk types.

Human Papillomavirus types prevalence and their association with cervical dysplasia among HIV and non-HIV infected women attending reproductive health clinics in Eastern Kenya

“…Pap smears were reported by a cytopathologist using Bethesda 2014 guidelines 9 , 10 as normal or abnormalAtypical Cells of Unknown Significance (ASCUS), Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), atypical squamous cells, cannot exclude HSIL (ASC-H) or Atypical glandular cells (AGC). Unknown inflammation and cervical infections (candidiasis, cervicitis, trachomatis, and bacterial vaginitis) were also reported.…”