Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are strongly associated with the development of
cervical intraepithelial neoplasias and invasive cervical cancer. Polymorphisms in
cytokine-encoding genes and behavioural cofactors could play an important role in
protecting an individual against viral infections and cancer. Here, we investigated
whether IL-6 -174 G>C, IL-8 +396 G>T, and
TGF-β1 +869 G>C and +915 G>C polymorphisms were associated
with susceptibility to HPV infection in women from north-east (Pernambuco) Brazil. We
analysed 108 healthy uninfected women (HC) and 108 HPV-positive women with cervical
lesions. Genetic polymorphisms were assessed using Sanger sequencing and polymerase
chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Comparison of the
distribution of the genotypic and allelic frequencies of the IL-18 +396 T>G
polymorphism between HPV infected woman an uninfected controls showed that the GG
genotype and G allele were both more frequent in the HC group, and were associated
with protection from HPV infection (p = 0.0015; OR = 0.29 CI95% = 0.13-0.61; p =
0.0005; OR = 0.45 CI95% 0.29-0.7, respectively). Individuals from the control group
could have previously had HPV infection that was spontaneously eliminated; however,
it was undetectable at the time of sample collection. Based on our findings, we
hypothesize that the IL-8 +396 G>T polymorphism could interfere
with susceptibility to HPV infection, by modulating the ability of immune system to
fight the virus.
Recently, progress has been achieved in the molecular understanding of the immune response in the onset of disease [3]. Several receptors of the extracellular interleukin (IL) and toll-like receptors families (TLR) have been implicated in IBD [4].
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