Background: The persistence of the HPV infection is a risk factor in the integration of viral DNA in the host genome, leading to transforming events. The lack of therapies for HPV-persistent infections determine an unmet medical need.
Methods: We enrolled forty patients with persistent HPV infections and cervical lesions and divided them into two groups. The women in the treated group received 200 mg epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), 400 µg folic acid (FA), 1 mg vitamin B12, and 50 mg hyaluronic acid (HA) for 12 weeks. The control group received no treatment.
Results: 40 patients completed the study. Fifteen out of 20 women in the control group still had an LSIL at the end of the study. One woman had a decrease in the DNA load, while six had no change and eight had an increase in DNA content. In the treatment group, 17 out of 20 women achieved a full viral clearance. These women showed no cytological or histological evidence of lesions following the treatment.
Conclusions: Our data highlight the possible effect of such combination on LSIL. Therefore, the evidence reported here supports the potential to carry out further randomized placebo-controlled studies with an adequate number of patients to verify our results.
Keywords: ASCUS; EGCG; HPV; LSIL; folic acid; hyaluronic acid; persistence; vitamin B12.