Study Identified Specific Antioxidants that May Reduce Oncogenic HPV Infection in Women
Leslie Capo, Director of Information Service
A study led by Hui-Yi Lin, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics, and a team of researchers
at LSU Health New Orleans Schools of Public Health and Medicine has found that adequate
levels of five antioxidants may reduce infection with the strains of the human papillomavirus
(HPV) associated with cervical cancer development. Findings are published in the Journal
of Infectious Diseases, available here.
Although previous studies have suggested that the onset of HPV-related cancer development
may be activated by oxidative stress, the association had not been clearly understood.
This study evaluated associations between 15 antioxidants and vaginal HPV infection
status -- no, low-risk, and oncogenic/high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) -- in 11,070 women aged
18-59 who participated in the 2003-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey.
Study results showed that lower levels of serum albumin and four dietary antioxidants
- vitamins A, B2, E, and folate -- were associated with a higher risk of HR-HPV infection.
Albumin is the most bountiful circulating protein in plasma, and decreased serum albumin
was found to be associated with increased systemic inflammation and impaired immune
response. Based on the four dietary antioxidants, the researchers developed a nutritional
antioxidant score.
“Our results showed that the women with the lowest quartile of the nutritional antioxidant
score had a higher chance of both high-risk and low-risk HPV infection compared with
the women with the highest quartile score after adjusting for other factors such as
age, race, smoking, alcohol, and the number of sexual partners in past 12 months,”
notes the paper's lead author Hui-Yi Lin, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics at LSU Health
New Orleans School of Public Health.
Human Papillomavirus is a well-known risk factor for cervical cancer, which is the
fourth most common female cancer and contributed to 7.5% of cancer deaths for women
worldwide in 2018. Certain HPV strains are more likely to trigger precursor events
leading to cancer development. These strains are called oncogenic or high-risk [HR]
HPV strains. Almost all cervical cancers are directly linked to previous infection
with one or more HR-HPV infections.
“Currently, there is no effective antiviral therapy to clear genital HPV infection,”
adds Dr. Lin. “It is important to identify modifiable factors, such as antioxidants,
associated with oncogenic HPV infection in order to prevent HPV carcinogenesis onset.”
Other members of the research team included Qiufan Fu, and Drs. Yu-Hsiang Kao, Tung-sung
Tseng, Krzysztof Reiss, Jennifer E. Cameron, Martin J. Ronis, Navya Nair, and Michael
E. Hagensee from LSU Health New Orleans, along with Dr. Joseph Su from the University
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Hsiao-Man Chang from Emory University.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute
of General Medical Sciences.