High prevalence of human papillomaviruses in the normal oral cavity of adults

Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the normal oral cavity was studied by the sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers for the L1 region of human papillomavirus DNA and high fidelity amplification system. Cells were scraped from the oral mucosae of 7 (mean age; 42 years) and 30 (mean age; 32 years) volunteers with and without skin warts, respectively. Human papillomavirus DNA was detected in 30/37 (81.1%) specimens and their copy numbers per cell were 10(-1) to 10(-4) (mean, 10(-3)). The human papillomavirus types determined by PCR-based sequencing analysis were HPV-18 (26/30; 86.7%), -61 (18/30; 60%), -59 (7/30; 23.3%), -16 (2/30; 6.7%), -6 (1/30; 3.3%) and an unknown type (HPV-X71) (1/30; 3.3%). Multiple human papillomavirus types were present in 17/30 (56.7%) specimens. HPV-6 was detected in 2 of 7 skin warts and differed from the human papillomavirus types of the corresponding oral specimens. These data suggest that human papillomavirus infection in the oral mucosa occurs much more frequently than previously considered.

Detection of Human Papillomavirus in Normal Oral Cavity in a Group of Pakistani Subjects using Real-Time PCR

“…Both HPV-16 and HPV-18 were found in one positive sample. A few reports also demonstrated that more than one type of HPV was detected in the oral cavity (Terai et al, 1999;Sosorbaram et al, 2006). Taken together, our data suggested that the nature of HPV infection may resemble other types of infection in that more than one strains of the same organism are able to reside in the oral cavity.…”

“…Using quantitative PCR, a high prevalence of HPV has been reported in the normal oral cavity of adults. HPV DNA was detected in 30 of 37 (81.1%) specimens and their copy numbers per cell were 10-, 10-4 and 10-3 (Terai et al, 1999). Multiple HPV types were present in 17 of 30 (56.7%) specimens and 2 specimens contained HPV-16, -18 and other types.…”

“…For example, using PCR analysis, no HPV was found in a study of 100 young volunteers from Brazil (Esquenazi et al, 2010), whereas a high prevalence of HPV in the normal oral cavity (81%) was found in Japanese adults (Terai et al, 1999). The prevalence rate of HPV in normal oral cavity in our study (24.5%) is comparable to other studies in that approximately 25% of the subjects were positive for HPV, using PCR analysis (Miller & White, 1996;Sosorbaram et al, 2006).…”

Prevalência do papilomavírus humano (HPV) na cavidade oral e na orofaringe

“…Notwithstanding, the assessment of different methods used to detect HPV16 is important and fundamental in order to establish the etiological role of HPV in oral lesions. Table 1 shows HPV 16 prevalence in the normal oral mucosa in 16 results from 14 authors, by the SB, ISH and PCR detection methods, making up 56% of all the results, and this seems to depend on the population examined and the choice of method used to detect HPV 21,16 .…”

“…In the normal oral mucosa we have seen a great variation in HPV rates detected, from 22% to 60% 17 ; from 0% all the way to 81.1% in studies using different methods, and with a limited number of individuals, and this seems to depend on the population studied and the choice of method 16,21 . It has been suggested that HPV prevalence in the normal mucosa includes subclinical and/or latent infections, and that the infection with a low number of virus copies is common in the oral cavity 8 .…”