69 Percent of American Adults Estimated to have Strain of HPV

A recent study conducted by researchers from the New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center shows that about 69 percent of American adults have been infected with at least one of the 109 strains of HPV identified in the study. 

"Our study offers initial and broad evidence of a seemingly 'normal' HPV viral biome in people that does not necessarily cause disease and that could very well mimic the highly varied bacterial environment in the body, or microbiome, which is key to maintaining good health," said senior study investigator and NYU Langone pathologist Zhiheng Pei, MD, PhD., an associate professor at NYU Langone, via a press release.

For the study, researchers examined public data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Microbiome Project, which includes information on the effect of microorganisms via human health. The study sample involved 748 tissue swabs taken from major organs of the body of healthy volunteers, including the gut, mouth, skin and vagina. All volunteers were between the age of 18 and 80. Over a two-year-period, researchers used a DNA decoding technique to sort through DNA samples.

They discovered that out of 103 participants, 71 were infected, with 42 having HPV in one organ, 22 in two organs and seven in three organs. Sixty-one percent of the infections were also found in the skin, with 41 percent in the vagina, 30 percent in the mouth and 17 percent in the gut.

"The HPV 'community' in healthy people is surprisingly more vast and complex than previously thought, and much further monitoring and research is needed to determine how the various non-cancer-causing HPV genotypes interact with the cancer-causing strains, such as genotypes 16 and 18, and what causes these strains to trigger cancer," added lead study investigator and NYU Langone research scientist, Yingfei Ma, PhD, via the release.

More information regarding the findings will be presented at the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, Mass.