Water Carcinogenicity and Prevalence of HPV Infection in Esophageal Cancer Patients in Huaihe River Basin, China

Abstract

Objective The incidence of the upper gastrointestinal tumor has increased rapidly during recent decades. The relationship between local water pollution and the tumor is still not much clear, so this study was conducted to further investigate the local water pollution and its influence on the malignant cell transformation. Prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in local esophageal cancer (EC) patients was also analyzed in Shenqiu County for the first time. Methods Two-step cell transformation was used to study different sources of water in the malignant cell transformation, and the existence of 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC) in water was analyzed from the river and shallow and deep wells. HPV DNA in tissue samples of EC patients was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and HPV diagnostic kit. Results The river water has higher cytotoxicity than the shallow well water and induced significant cell malignant transformation, while deep well water has not shown the malignant cell transformation. In Huaihe River water, the 3-MC concentration was found higher than shallow and deep wells. An HPV infection rate was found high in patients with esophageal cancer. Conclusion Long-term consumption of polluted water can induce malignant cell transformation, and the presence of HPV may be an important cause of cancer.

Persistent Contaminants and Herpesvirus OtHV1 Are Positively Associated With Cancer in Wild California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus)

“…This California sea lion case control study provides evidence that herpesvirus infection (OtHV1) is critical to the likelihood of carcinoma occurrence, but in addition, the higher the animals' blubber contaminant concentrations, the higher the odds of cancer. Such synergism between pollutants and virus in causing cancer has been suggested previously in humans but not wildlife: the high prevalence of esophageal carcinoma in people in the Huaihe River Basin in China is associated with human papillomavirus and exposure to 3-methylcholanthrene (Ghaffar et al, 2018). As carcinogenesis is a multistep process requiring multiple mutagenic events and may necessitate replication and fixing of the DNA damage caused by promoters, this study supports the hypothesis that carcinoma in California sea lions is a multifactorial disease.…”

Evidence of a novel cross‐species transmission by ovine papillomaviruses

“…Papillomaviruses have recently been detected and quantified in surface water of rivers (Iaconelli et al., 2015). Papillomaviruses have been detected in vegetables and irrigation water, and a long‐term consumption of HPV‐polluted water can be associated with cell transformation (Ghaffar et al., 2018; Itarte et al., 2021). Several papillomavirus genotypes of different genera are known to be responsible for oral infection; however, the information on associated risk factors is still limited (Wong et al., 2018).…”

Human papillomavirus is an important risk factor for esophageal carcinoma in a Chinese population

“…Therefore, other risk factors should be investigated to identify the reasons responsible for the high EC incidence in these regions. Factors involved in EC pathology could be the intake of hot drinks, contaminated water and food, deficiency of essential nutrients, and infectious agents like HPV (Ghaffar et al 2018 ; Guo et al 2016 ; Zhang et al 2011b ). High-risk HPV types have been observed in at least 90% of cervical cancers and approximately 20% of head and neck cancers (Liu et al 2013 ).…”