HPV have been identified as high-risk and low-risk, depending on their association with the development of cancer. HPV infections can be facilitated by co-infection with HIV. Here, we investigated HPV prevalence and genotypes and the risk factors affecting HPV/HIV co-infection. Forty HIV-positive patients had 80 cervical swab samples collected in 2 consecutive years. Polymerase chain reaction and DNA direct sequencing were used to perform HPV genotyping. Statistical analyses were performed regarding risk factors for HPV/HIV co-infection and the occurrence of cervical lesions. HPV DNA was detected in 59 samples (73.75%), and high-risk HPVs were predominant (59.3%). The most prevalent type was HPV56 (17%), followed by HPV16 (15.3%). Patient age did not affect the risk of cervical cancer (P = .84) or HPV prevalence in different years (P = .25/P = .63). CD4 count also did not affect the risk for cervical lesions in the tested samples (P = .15/P = .28). Although the HIV viral load was not correlated with an increase in cervical lesion detection in the first group of analyzed samples (P = .12), it did affect cervical cancer risk in the group of samples analyzed in the following year (P = .045). HIV-infected patients presented a high prevalence of HPV co-infection, and HPV16 and HPV56 were the most prevalent genotypes. Considering this, it is possible that immunodeficiency can contribute to increased susceptibility to HPV56 infection in HIV-infected patients. The association between HIV viral load and the lesions also confirmed the importance of monitoring HIV/HPV co-infected patients with high HIV viral loads.

A significant proportion of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is caused by human papillomavirus type 6 (HPV-6). The long control region (LCR) contains cis-elements for regulation of transcription. Our aim was to characterize LCR HPV-6 variants in RRP cases, compare promoter activity of these isolates and search for cellular transcription factors (TFs) that could explain the differences observed. The complete LCR from 13 RRP was analyzed. Transcriptional activity of 5 variants was compared using luciferase assays. Differences in putative TFs binding sites among variants were revealed using the TRANSFAC database. Chromatin immunoprecipation (CHIP) and luciferase assays were used to evaluate TF binding and impact upon transcription, respectively. Juvenile-onset RRP cases harbored exclusively HPV-6vc related variants, whereas among adult-onset cases HPV-6a variants were more prevalent. The HPV-6vc reference was more transcriptionally active than the HPV-6a reference. Active FOXA1, ELF1 and GATA1 binding sites overlap variable nucleotide positions among isolates and influenced LCR activity. Furthermore, our results support a crucial role for ELF1 on transcriptional downregulation. We identified TFs implicated in the regulation of HPV-6 early gene expression. Many of these factors are mutated in cancer or are putative cancer biomarkers, and must be further studied.

Condyloma acuminata (CA), or genital warts, are benign proliferative epidermal or mucous lesions that are caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), mainly the low-risk types 6 and 11. HPV variants are defined as viral sequences that share identity in the nucleotide sequence of the L1 gene greater than 98%. Based on this criterion, HPV6 and 11 variant lineages have been studied, and there are ongoing attempts to correlate these genetic variants with different clinical findings of infection. Therefore, the aims of this study were to detect variants and nucleotide alterations present in the E6 regions of HPV types 6 and 11 found in CA samples, to correlate the HPV presence with the clinical-pathological data of the patients, and to determine phylogenetic relationships with variants from other places in the world. The E6 regions of 25 HPV6 samples and 7 HPV11 samples from CA were amplified using PCR with specific primers. The products were ligated to a cloning vector and five colonies of each sample were sequenced to observe the nucleotide alterations. Twelve samples were identified as the HPV6B3 variant, presenting the mutation (guanine) G474A (adenine), and one of them also showed the mutation (thymine) T369G. The other 13 patients were positive for HPV6B1 without nucleotide alterations. In the analysis of the HPV11 samples, all patients showed the mutations T137C and (cytosine) C380T. One patient also presented the nucleotide alteration T410C. None of the mutations found in the 32 analyzed samples resulted in amino acid changes. Patient age, local occurrence, and HIV infection did not show significant association with HPV infection. Besides, the data found in this study did not show a relationship with the geographical region of isolation when compared to other data from different regions of the world. In this way, despite the nucleotide alterations found, it was not possible to observe amino acid changes and variants grouping according to geographical region.

HRSV is one of the most important pathogens causing acute respiratory tract diseases as bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants. HRSV was isolated from two distinct communities, a public day care center and a public hospital in São José do Rio Preto - SP, Brazil. We obtained partial sequences from G gene that were used on phylogenetic and selection pressure analysis. HRSV accounted for 29% of respiratory infections in hospitalized children and 7.7% in day care center children. On phylogenetic analysis of 60 HRSV strains, 48 (80%) clustered within or adjacent to the GA1 genotype; GA5, NA1, NA2, BA-IV and SAB1 were also observed. SJRP GA1 strains presented variations among deduced amino acids composition and lost the potential O-glycosilation site at amino acid position 295, nevertheless this resulted in an insertion of two potential O-glycosilation sites at positions 296 and 297. Furthermore, a potential O-glycosilation site insertion, at position 293, was only observed for hospital strains. Using SLAC and MEME methods, only amino acid 274 was identified to be under positive selection. This is the first report on HRSV circulation and genotypes classification derived from a day care center community in Brazil.