Clinical and epidemiological correlates of antibody response to human papillomaviruses (HPVs) as measured by a novel ELISA based on denatured recombinant HPV16 late (L) and early (E) antigens.
BACKGROUND
At present, seroreactivity is not a valuable parameter for diagnosis of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection but, it is potentially valuable as marker of viral exposure in elucidating the natural history of this infection. More data are needed to asses the clinical relevance of serological response to HPV.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to assess the clinical and epidemiological correlates of HPV-seroreactivity in a cohort of HIV-negative and HIV-positive women.


METHODS
Seroreactivity of 96 women, evaluated in an ELISA test based on denatured HPV16 late (L) and early (E) antigens, was correlated with their clinical and epidemiological data previously collected for a multi-centre Italian study, HPV-PathogenISS study.


RESULTS
No significant correlation was found between HPV DNA detection and seroreactivity. Women, current smokers showed significantly less seroreactivity to L antigens as compared with the non-smokers. HIV-positive women showed significantly less (66.7%) antibody response as compared with HIV-negative women (89.3%), with particularly impaired response to L antigens. Women, HIV-positive and current smokers, showed by far the lowest seroprevalence (33.3%) as compared to 75.9% among all other women (OR = 0.158; 95%CI 0.036-0.695, p = 0.014; Fisher's exact test). Importantly, this association did not loose its significance when controlled for confounding from age (continuous variable) in multivariate analysis or using Mantel-Haenszel test for age-groups.


CONCLUSIONS
It is tempting to speculate that HIV-positive current smokers comprise a special high-risk group, with highly impaired immunological response that could prevent eradication of persistent HPV infections and thus contribute to development of CIN3/CC.
Giorgi
Colomba
C
Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immunomediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy. colomba.giorgi@iss.it
Di Bonito
Paola
P
Grasso
Felicia
F
Mochi
Stefania
S
Accardi
Luisa
L
Donà
Maria Gabriella
MG
Branca
Margherita
M
Costa
Silvano
S
Mariani
Luciano
L
Agarossi
Alberto
A
Ciotti
Marco
M
Syrjänen
Kari
K