NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Polymorphisms in human papillomavirus (HPV) type 52 appear to increase the likelihood of persistent infection in sexually active women, Canadian researchers report in the July 1st issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Persistent infection with oncogenic types of HPV precedes cervical lesions, the authors point out, but it is unclear why only a subset of women with HPV infection develop cervical cancer.

Dr. Francois Coutlee from Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal, Quebec and colleagues investigated the role of HPV type 52 polymorphisms in the long control region (LCR), E6, and E7 genes in the persistence of HPV infection in 111 women infected with or at risk for HIV infection.

Being younger, infection with a nonprototype LCR or a nonprototype E6 variant were significantly associated with the persistence of HPV-52 infection in 41 women, the authors report. HIV status, level of immune deficiency, and race were not significantly associated with persistence of HPV-52 infection.

In multivariate analyses, only infection with a nonprototype LCR variant was independently predictive of persistent infection with HPV-52.

Just over half the women with persistent HPV-52 infection had Pap smear results suggestive of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL), the researchers note, compared with only 2 of 11 (18.2%) of women with transient HPV infection. Most women with persistent HPV-52 infection (15 of 17), however, were coinfected with another oncogenic HPV type.

"Our data provide epidemiological evidence that HPV-52 variants differ in their capacity to induce persistent infection and, potentially, cervical SIL," the authors observe.

"In fact," they conclude, "after we controlled for age and HIV status, participants infected with nonprototypic HPV-52 variants were 14 times more likely to have persistent HPV-52 infection than were women infected with the prototype."

J Infect Dis 2004;190:46-52.

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