Evaluation of Human Papillomavirus Infections in Prostatic Disease: a Cross-Sectional Study in Iran

Background: The role of inflammation in prostate diseases is suggested by the presence of inflammatory cellswithin the prostate in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa) patients. In addition, bacterialand viral infection may lead to chronic and recurrent inflammation of the prostate. The human papillomaviruses(HPVs) are a family of sexually transmitted viruses which have been implicated in the aetiology of cervicalcancer and several other malignancies. This study evaluated the frequency of HPV infection in individualswith prostatic disease in Iran. Materials and Methods: The study included formalin fixed paraffin- embeddedtissue samples of 196 primary prostate cases, including 29 PCa and 167 BPH samples. HPV DNA was purifiedand amplified through MY09/MY11 and GP5+/GP6+ primers with nested PCR. All patients were interviewedusing a questionnaire to collect demographic information. Results: Nested PCR showed that HPV DNA wasfound in 17.2 percent of PCa samples and 4.8 percent of BPH samples (not significant). Conclusions: Our datado not support a significant role of HPV infection in prostatic disease in Iranian patients, but demographic dataindicated a probable association between presence of HPV DNA and risk of inflammation in prostate tissuewhich might lead to prostate carcinoma. Further studies are required to elucidate any roles of HPV infection inprostatic disease.