Perinatal infection and persistence of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 in infants

Abstract

Perinatal transmission of genital human papillomaviruses (HPVs), including HPV-16 and -18 which are associated with anogenital carcinomas have been described previously [Pakarian et al. (1994): British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 101:514-517; Kaye et al. (1994) Journal of Medical Virology 44:415-421]. A study was undertaken to investigate whether HPV-16 and -18 DNA in infants contaminated at delivery persists until they are 6 months of age. Of 61 pregnant women recruited, 42 (68.8%) were HPV-16 and 13 (21.3%) were HPV-18 DNA positive. At 24 hr there were transmission rates from HPV DNA positive mothers to their infants of about 73% (HPV-16: 69%; HPV-18: 76.9%). Ten mothers who were both HPV-16 and -18 DNA positive produced six (60%) infants who were also doubly positive at 24 hr. HPV DNA persisted to 6 weeks in 79.5% (HPV-16: 84%; HPV-18: 75%) of those infants who were positive at birth. At 6 months of age, persistent HPV-16 DNA was detected in 83.3% of cases, but HPV-18 DNA persistence at this time was 20%. To extend these observations over a greater age range of children HPV-16 L1 and L2 proteins were expressed in insect cells via recombinant baculoviruses and sera from 229 children were examined to determine at what age IgM antibodies to HPV were acquired. There was a bimodal distribution of IgM seropositivity which peaked between 2 and 5 and 13 and 16 years of age, suggesting that two distinct modes of transmission may occur. The observation that infection with high cancer risk genital HPVs may occur in early life and persist is of considerable importance for HPV vaccine strategies.

Congenital Cutaneous Fibropapillomatosis with No Evidence of Papillomavirus Infection in a Piglet

“…In humans and cows, papilloma virus is known to cause vertical infection, and PV infection of the fetus has been confirmed by PCR [1,12,15]. However, the present case was PV-negative on immunohistochemistry and PCR.…”

Implications of Human Papillomavirus Infections in the Biology of Head and Neck Cancers

“…In two previous studies by Smith et al, only one mother/newborn pair was concordant for an HPV type, and among 203 infants, two had detectable HPV in oral or genital swabs (Smith et al, 1995(Smith et al, , 2004b. Studies on persistent HPV infection showed that the concordance between mother/newborn infections was maintained between 37% to 83% at six weeks to six months after birth (Cason et al, 1995;Fredericks et al, 1993;Kaye et al, 1996), whereas Rintala et al found that the prevalence declined to 10% in infants at 24 months of follow-up. This prospective cohort study assessed the dynamics of HPV transmission between parents and infants.…”

“…According to the age studied, there are variations in the prevalence rate. In nasopharyngeal aspirates collected immediately after birth, the detection rate of HPV varies from 1.5% to 37% (Cason et al, 1995;Castellsague et al, 2009;Mazzatenta et al, 1996;Puranen et al, 1996Puranen et al, , 1997Rintala et al, 2005aRintala et al, , 2005bRombaldi et al, 2008;Sedlacek et al, 1989;Tenti et al, 1997Tenti et al, , 1999Watts et al, 1998). At the age of 1-4 days, Smith et al in two studies found a low HPV incidence (from 0.9% to 1%) in the buccal swabs of neonates, whereas other studies showed a higher prevalence varying from 40% to 56% (Cason et al, 1995;Kaye et al, 1994;Pakarian et al, 1994;Tseng et al, 1998;Smith et al, 1995Smith et al, , 2004b.…”

“…In nasopharyngeal aspirates collected immediately after birth, the detection rate of HPV varies from 1.5% to 37% (Cason et al, 1995;Castellsague et al, 2009;Mazzatenta et al, 1996;Puranen et al, 1996Puranen et al, , 1997Rintala et al, 2005aRintala et al, , 2005bRombaldi et al, 2008;Sedlacek et al, 1989;Tenti et al, 1997Tenti et al, , 1999Watts et al, 1998). At the age of 1-4 days, Smith et al in two studies found a low HPV incidence (from 0.9% to 1%) in the buccal swabs of neonates, whereas other studies showed a higher prevalence varying from 40% to 56% (Cason et al, 1995;Kaye et al, 1994;Pakarian et al, 1994;Tseng et al, 1998;Smith et al, 1995Smith et al, , 2004b. Similarly, the detection rate of HPV in infants between 6 weeks and 6 months after delivery varied between 0% and 62% (Cason et al, 2005;Fredericks et al, 1993;Pakarian et al, 1994;Watts et al, 1998) and among 3-year-old children varied between 10% and 40% (Kojima et al, 2003;Puranen et al, 1996Puranen et al, , 1997Szydlowski et al, 2004).…”

“…HPV transmission may be the result of close contacts between the fetus and infected cervical and vaginal cells of the mother during delivery. Using DNA sequencing, several authors have shown that the mother is the source of infection with evidence of virus transcription in some children (Cason et al, 1995;Kaye et al, 1996). Vertical transmission was considered when the maternal HPV type matches the HPV type isolated from the newborn/child.…”