Association between human papillomavirus infection or immunization and risk for rheumatoid arthritis

Guangxia Yang; Zeqin Ren; Kai Wang

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1130217

Association between human papillomavirus infection or immunization and risk for rheumatoid arthritis

Front Immunol. 2023 Apr 14:14:1130217. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1130217. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Guangxia Yang¹, Zeqin Ren², Kai Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rheumatology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Rehabilitation, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, China.
³ Department of Rheumatology, The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huai'an, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus primarily transmitted through sexual contact. Little is known about the association between HPV infection or immunization and the risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether HPV infection or immunization is related to the risk for RA in adults.

Methods: Data were obtained from the 2007-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We developed three independent multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate the association between HPV infection or immunization and the risk for RA in adults.

Results: Finally, we analyzed 15,677 and 8,944 subjects, respectively. In all models, HPV infection was positively associated with an increased prevalence of RA in adults aged 18-59 years, with the highest value of the odds ratio (OR) in model 2 (after weighting: OR 1.095, 95% CI 1.092, 1.097), whereas HPV immunization significantly reduced the prevalence of RA in adults aged 18-59 years, with the lowest OR in model C (after weighting: OR 0.477, 95% CI 0.472, 0.481). These associations persisted after correction for confounders such as age, sex, race, education level, marital status, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and BMI.

Conclusion: In summary, our study suggests that HPV infection is positively associated with the prevalence of RA in adults, and HPV immunization can reduce the prevalence of RA in adults. However, our findings need more powerful to prove these associations through rigorously designed prospective studies.

Keywords: autoimmune disease; human papillomavirus (HPV); immunization (vaccination); infection; rheumatoid arthritis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / epidemiology
Human Papillomavirus Viruses
Humans
Nutrition Surveys
Papillomavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Papillomavirus Infections* / prevention & control
Prospective Studies
Vaccination

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Nanjing Medical University Science and Technology Development Fund (NMUB20220207), the Sub-center Project of Infectious Diseases Clinical Medical Center of Yunnan Province and the Construction Project of Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of Yunnan Provicial Department of Education (DFYGR007) and Basic Research Program of Yunnan Science and Technology Department (202101BA070001-123).