BackgroundHigh grade HPV infections and persistence are the strongest risk factors for cervical cancer. Nevertheless other genital microorganisms may be involved in the progression of HPV associated lesions.MethodsCervical samples were collected to search for human Papillomavirus (HPV), bacteria and yeast infections in gynaecologic outpatients. HPV typing was carried out by PCR and sequencing on cervical brush specimens. Chlamydia trachomatis was identified by strand displacement amplification (SDA) and the other microorganisms were detected by conventional methods.ResultsIn this cross-sectional study on 857 enrolled outpatients, statistical analyses revealed a significant association of HPV with C. trachomatis and Ureaplasma urealyticum (at high density) detection, whereas no correlation was found between HPV infection and bacterial vaginosis, Streptococcus agalactiae, yeasts, Trichomonas vaginalis and U. urealyticum. Mycoplasma hominis was isolated only in a few cases both in HPV positive and negative women and no patient was infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae.ConclusionAlthough bacterial vaginosis was not significantly associated with HPV, it was more common among the HPV positive women. A significant association between HPV and C. trachomatis was found and interestingly also with U. urealyticum but only at a high colonization rate. These data suggest that it may be important to screen for the simultaneous presence of different microorganisms which may have synergistic pathological effects.

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with benign cutaneous or mucosal lesions and with malignant tumours, but none of the HPV types has so far been related to skin tags. Skin biopsy specimens from 49 Caucasian patients suffering from the presence of multiple soft fibromas were analysed by means of dot blot hybridization and by polymerase chain reaction assays aimed at detecting all known HPV types. The results revealed the presence of HPV DNA type 6/11 in 88% of the skin tags examined. This result supports the hypothesis that HPV plays a part in the progression of cutaneous soft fibromas, as previously reported for laryngeal papillomas.

Type-specific HPV-DNA copies at baseline appear to be independent of patient immune status and of HPV genotype. HPV genotype risk and viral load should be further evaluated for their potential predictive role in persistence and progression.

The aim of this study was to evaluate patterns of antiretroviral resistance of HIV-1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in the plasma of patients whose therapeutic regimen is failing. Plasma and PBMC samples were collected from 95 HIV-infected patients undergoing long-term treatment. Genotyping of the reverse transcriptase (RT) and protease genes of HIV-1 was undertaken using the fluorescent dideoxy-terminator method. Comparison of the amino acid sequence of the RT and protease genes in cell-associated variants of HIV-1 with that of the plasma revealed that 62 of the 95 patients' samples tested exhibited different genotypic resistance patterns (discordant samples [DSs]). In 27% of samples, the patterns of resistance detected were concordant in both compartments. In 51% of DSs, the greatest number of mutations was found in plasma; however, in 37% of DSs, greater numbers of mutations were found in PBMC DNA. The HIV mutation patterns detected in plasma do not necessarily reflect those found in the cell-associated compartment. The observation that the cellular compartment may contain an archive of the resistance variant makes this reservoir an interesting substrate for analysis of the "resistance potential" in a given patient.