MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HPV IN HEALTHY SKIN FROM IMMUNOSUPPRESSED AND IMMUNOCOMPETENT INDIVIDUALS

ELISA M. BOLATTI; DIEGO CHOUHY; PABLO CASAL; EMMA J. STELLA; ADRIANA A. GIRI

Rosario

Congreso; L Reunión anual SAIB; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones Bioquimicas

Papillomaviruses (PVs) are DNA tumour viruses infecting mucosal and cutaneous epithelia of vertebrates. More than 190 human PVs (HPVs) types have been completely sequenced. Although the clinical implications of the cutaneous HPV types are still unknown, it has been proposed that immunosuppression (UV + immunosuppressive treatment) may contribute to HPV infection. In order to explore the diversity of cutaneous HPVs on healthy skin from individuals with different immunological status, we designed a transversal descriptive study including 100 immunocompetent (IC) and 64 immunosuppressed (IS) individuals. Skin samples were collected from the forehead using a non-invasive procedure and analyzed by ?hanging droplet? PCR with the FAP primer system. HPV DNA was more frequently found in the IC group (65% IC vs. 56% IS). In both populations, the majority of HPV types and putative types identified belonged to the β- and γ-PV genera, being HPV-20 (β-1) the most prevalent type. Time of sun exposure and age were significantly higher (p≤0.05) in IC HPV-infected subjects. Using ?hanging droplet? long PCR assay, the full-length genomes of two γ-PV putative types were amplified. Novel putative types EP1 and FA91 showed 85% and 73% of sequence identity in L1 ORF to the HPV-173 (γ-1) and HPV-148 (γ-12), respectively. These findings expand our knowledge of the Papillomaviridae family.