Summer Undergraduate Research Program - Fred Hutchinson ...

Human papillomavirus infections in mid-adult women
Taylor Lasof1,2 , Joseph Carter1 , Jane Fu3 , Rachel Winer3 , Denise Galloway1 1Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
2University of San Diego, San Diego, CA
3University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Conclusions
Results
Introduction
Characteristics of the antibody response in mid-adult women to HPVs:
• Infection increased in women with more partners
2012 Best Poster Award
• Antibodies for each HPV type were detected at a high frequency
• Of the HPV types associated with Anogenital cancers, 16 and 59
were the most prevalent
• 22% of the women were antibody positive for at least one high-risk
HPV type
• 36% of the women had 3 or more of the high-risk HPV types tested
Figure 3. Phylogenetic tree of human papillomavirus. Different
colors depict different species of HPV types.
Future Directions
Table 1. Serostatus and demographics of the population. There
were no significant differences between seropositive and
seronegative women. (N=409).
This study examines the natural history of genital human papillomavirus (HPV)
infections and the epidemiology of HPV infections among women aged 30 to
50 years. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and an important cause of
cervical cancer, which is the third most common cause of cancer among
women worldwide. These viruses also cause a significant proportion of
oropharyngeal cancers. Gardasil and Cervarix are vaccines that protect against
infection in females and males 9-26 years of age by initiating an antibody
response before they have been exposed to HPVs. These vaccines protect
against the most prevalent HPV types: 16, 18, 6 and 11. HPV 16 and HPV 18
cause 75% of cervical cancer cases, whereas HPV 6 and 11 cause 90% of
genital wart cases.
HPV has been researched thoroughly in young adults, however, less is known
about the virus in adult women. The goal of this research is to better
understand HPV infections in women 30-50 years of age and the risk factors
associated with each type of infection so that well-informed public health
decisions can be made regarding vaccination, treatment, and guidance for
HPV patients. The work presented here examined the antibody response to
17 HPV types, 14 of which are associated with cervical cancer. Antibodies
detected in 93% of these women were due to natural infection as they had
not been vaccinated.
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Using this serology data along with HPV DNA detection among these
women:
• Determine if incident DNA detection is due to reactivated or a new
infection
Objectives
Characterize the antibody response in mid-adult women to HPVs
• Study the risk factors associated with new and reactivated infections
• Determine the prevalence of types associated with anogenital
cancers among these women
• Determine the number of types to which women have antibodies
• Determine if antibodies to these types are associated with the
number of lifetime sex partners
References
• Waterboer, Tim. “Multiplex Human Papillomavirus Serology Based
on In Situ-Purified Gluathione S-Transferase Fusion
Proteins.”Clinical Chemistry. 1845-1853. (2005).
Figure 4. Percent of individuals seropositive according to HPV
specific types. Color coding - figure 3.
Figure 2. Percent of women according to number of HPV types.
Materials and Methods
• Winer, Rachel L. “Early Natural History of Incident, Type-Specific
Human Papillomavirus Infections in Newly Sexually Active Young
Women.” Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 20:699-707. (2011.)
Acknowledgements
• The Summer Undergraduate Research Program is supported in part
by the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) CURE Supplement: 3
P30 CA015704-38S1
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• University of Washington (P01 AI083224-01A1)
• University of San Diego
Figure 5. Percentage seropositive individuals categorized by
number of lifetime partners. HPV 16 and HPV 18 are two
examples of the HPV types tested in this cohort that showed a
correlation between the number of partners and serostatus (HPV
16, p < 0.001; HPV 18 p < 0.004).
Figure 1. Method for HPV luminex. Antibodies (IgG) were
detected by a luminex instrument using GST-HPV L1 fusion
proteins. The median fluorescence intensity (mfi) is
calculated for the antigen-specific reactivity. The cutoff used
to determine seropositivity is mfi= 1000.