Prevalence of novel gamma HPV types 223 and 225 in oral cavity and skin of Indian normal and neoplastic participants

Abstract

Gamma‐papillomaviruses, though traditionally classified as cutaneotropic, actual tissue tropism is largely unexplored. This study aimed to evaluate the tissue‐specific prevalence of two novel‐HPV 223 and 225 in samples of oral mucosa and keratinized epithelium of varied skin parts from 226 female and male subjects, with or without neoplastic/dysplastic lesions in oral cavity or cervix. The gamma‐human papillomavirus (gamma‐HPV) 223 and 225 DNA presences were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ursing the HPV type‐specific primers and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Viral load in the HPV 223 and HPV 225 positive samples were determined by absolute real‐time quantification method. Alpha‐HPV DNA prevalence was also checked in oral mucosa to ascertain coinfection status. Novel HPV 223 was present in 4.4% (10/226) oral mucosal samples of the study population; interestingly all were females with no prevalence in their corresponding skin swab samples. Whereas, the prevalence of HPV 225 was found both in the skin and oral mucosa of 28.2% (N = 37/131) female and 17.9% (N = 17/95) male participants. Alongside, HPV 223 viral load was found to be significantly higher (p = 0.02 < 0.05) in the oral mucosa of diseased participants, whereas, HPV 225 viral load was higher in the oral mucosa of normal participants. Our results suggest that gamma‐HPV 223 has its prevalence only in the oral mucosal epithelium, whereas, HPV 225 has its prevalence on both mucosal and keratinized skin epithelium, indicating its dual tropism nature.