Role of human papilloma virus (HPV) in common and genital warts and its relation to P53 expression.

Background And Aim: Human papilloma viruses (HPVs) are small DNA tumor viruses that infect epithelial tissues and cause warts. One of the viral genes responsible for HPV's oncogenic activity is E6 which is known to inactivate the cellular p53 tumor suppressor gene. We aim to detect the presence of HPV infection and its different types in human warts, and to identify the relation between HPV and p53 expression in skin and genital lesions.

Patients And Methods: We studied markers of HPV infection in overall of 30 patients (20 with common warts, and 10 with genital warts). Also, 30 normal skin samples were taken from each patient as a normal control. Detection of HPV was done using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and HPV typing was performed using LiPA (Line immuno Probe Assay). In addition, all skin lesions were examined by immunohistochemistry for p53 expression.

Results: In patients with common warts, HPV DNA was found in 4/20 (20%) of cases which was of HPV types 11, 31, 6, 33 (p=0.28). Also, P53 expression was found in 4/20 (20%) of cases (p=0.26). No single patient showed reactivity of both HPV and p53 expression. In patients with genital warts, however, HPV DNA was found in 6/10 (60%) of cases. Of these, 5 cases were positive for HPV type 6 and one case had HPV type 11. Three patients (30%) were positive for p53, and two of them (66%) were positive for both HPV and p53. In the normal skin control, 2/30 (6.6%) were positive for HPV DNA which were of types 5, and 31.

Conclusions: We conclude that; (1) Prevalence rate of HPV infection in warts is higher than those of normal control group, and Egyptian patients with genital warts had higher prevalence rate of HPV than those with common warts, (2) In Egypt, HPV types 6, and 11 are the most prevalent genotypes associated with genital warts and HPV types 6, 11, 31, and 33 are associated with common warts, (3) There was no definite relation between p53 expression and HPV detection, (4) Also, there was no association between the different HPV types and p53 detection in these non-cancerous lesions.