Prevalence of HPV and associated factors in a population of women living in southern Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of HPV and investigate factors associated with the infection in women in the city of Francisco Beltrão, southwest Paraná, attending the public health system. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 324 women, aged between 18 and 65 years, who were attending public health services for routine gynecological consultation. Interviews were conducted to obtain information about socioeconomic, sexual, gynecological, and life habits. After performing the Papanicolaou test, endocervical brush was employed to detect HPV by polymerase chain reaction with the primers MY09-MY11. RESULTS: The prevalence of HPV was 6.8%, out of which 58.3% presented with cytopathologic alterations. And the presence of current cervical alterations can increase the chances of having HPV by almost 33 times (ORadj: 32.688; p < 0.001), recent vaginal infection increased the chances of HPV infection by 2.7 times (ORadj: 2.773; p = 0.04). The non-white ethnicity increased HPV infection chances threefold (ORadj: 3.058; p = 0.039). CONCLUSION: The main finding was low prevalence of HPV infection. Factors that may be linked to HPV infection were cervical alterations, recent vaginal infection, and women's ethnicity.

GSTT1 and GSTM1 polymorphisms with human papillomavirus infection in women from southern Brazil: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Important risk factors for the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the world, human papillomavirus (HPV), include early sexual activity, use of contraceptives, tobacco smoking, and immunological and genetic factors. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms and HPV infection and associated risk factors in a group of women assisted in the public health system of southwestern Paraná, Brazil. METHODS AND RESULTS: A case-control study was designed with 21 women with HPV matched by age in the case group and 84 women without the virus in the control group. Viral detection was conducted via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotyping by Multiplex PCR. The results showed that the GSTT1 null allele was a protective factor against infection (ORadj 0.219; 95% CI 0.078-0.618; p = 0.004). No relationship was observed for the GSTM1 gene. Smoking was defined as a risk factor (ORadj 3.678; 95% CI 1.111-12.171; p = 0.033), increasing the chances of HPV by up to 3.6 times. CONCLUSION: This study showed, for the first time, the relationship between GSTM1 and GSTT1 genetic polymorphisms and HPV. We found that this relationship protected women from southern Brazil from viral infection, but not from susceptibility.

Relationship between GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms and HPV infection: a systematic review.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most important risk factor for cervical cancer, although not the only one. The allelic polymorphism of enzymes acting on carcinogen metabolism has shown to influence the risk of both intraepithelial lesions and cervical carcinogenesis. Several studies found an association between GSTM1/GSTT1 null genotypes and risk of cancer. This research aimed to review studies addressing the relationship between GSTT1 and GSTM1 and HPV infection in women, with or without cervical pathologies. A database search was conducted in four databases - PubMed, LILACS, SciELO, and Virtual Health Library - using the following descriptors: Glutathione transferase, HPV, and Genetic polymorphism. In total, we found 319 studies. After screening titles and abstracts, 27 articles were selected for full-text read, among which 20 were excluded and 7 were included in the review. No study has exclusively approached the relationship between the virus and GSTM1/GSTT1 variants. However, studies investigating the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and cervical lesions or cancer found a probable relationship between them and infections with high-risk oncogenic subtypes. Although inconclusive, GSTT1 null alleles were more common in women with more aggressive HPV than GSTM1.