Genotyping of the human papilloma virus in a group of Mexican women treated in a highly specialist hospital: Multiple infections and their potential transcendence in the current vaccination programme

Abstract

Background and objetive: Human papilloma virus (HPV) is one of the main risk factors associated with the development of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. It has been reported that HPV16 and 18 types cover approximately 70% of cervical cancer worldwide; however, significant variation in percentages of HPV infections could be related to specific populations.

Materials and methods: Purified DNA of 67 cervical samples were analyzed by Linear Array® HPV genotyping kit. These analyzed samples correspond to 19 cervical tumors, 15 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, 20 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and 13 cervical samples without injury were studied, all of them previously diagnosed.

Results: In general, 16 different HPV types were found with differences in their frequencies, cervical invasive cancer being the richest in HPV sequences, followed by the low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and then high-grade lesions. HPV16 was the most frequently distributed type in neoplastic lesions of the cervix, followed by the HPV52, suggesting viral type variability, probably associated to the geographical region studied.

Conclusions: The results could indicate variability in HPV presence in Mexico, underlining the important role for HPV52 among others in the Mexican population. This would also potentially have an impact on the current anti-HPV vaccination schemes.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; Cáncer cervicouterino; Human papilloma virus; Infecciones múltiples; Multiple infections; Virus del papiloma humano.