ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Urologica e Nefrologica 1998 December;50(4):225-31

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Simultaneous detection of HPV and other sexually transmitted agents in chronic urethritis

Chiarini F. ¹, Pisani S. ¹, Gallinelli C. ¹, Papi E. ¹, Seganti L. ¹, Degener A. M. ², Pierangeli A. ², Gentile V. ³, Brunori S. ³, Di Silverio F. ³

¹ University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Institute of Microbiology; ² University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology; ³ University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Department of Urology

Background. Many patho­gens may be re­spon­sible of Non Gonococcal Urethritis (NGU) ­with the pos­sible oc­cur­rence of symp­to­mat­ic and asymp­to­mat­ic ­mixed vi­ral and bac­te­ri­al in­fec­tions. In par­tic­u­lar, gen­i­tal pa­pil­lom­a­vi­rus­es (HPVs) ­have ­been ­searched ­since ­they are ­linked to ­both be­nign and ma­lig­nant le­sions of the pe­nis and ure­thra and the pres­ence of a po­ten­tial ­male car­ried ­state has re­ceived lim­it­ed scru­ti­ny ­while the screen­ing of sex­u­al­ly ac­tive fe­males has re­ceived sub­stan­tial at­ten­tion.
Methods. In ­male pa­tients af­fect­ed by chron­ic NGU, the pres­ence of DNA of Chlamydia tra­chom­a­tis, ­herpes sim­plex vi­rus (HSV) ­type 1 and 2 and hu­man pa­pil­lom­a­vi­rus­es by PCR and the oc­cur­rence of Gram pos­i­tive and Gram neg­a­tive mi­cror­gan­isms, of Mycoplasma hom­i­nis and Ureaplasma urea­lyt­i­cum, by con­ven­tion­al cul­tu­ral meth­ods ­have ­been in­ves­ti­gat­ed.
Results. Results ob­tained in­di­cat­ed a ­high per­cent­age of ­mixed in­fec­tions, up to 36%. Genital HPV DNA was de­tect­ed in 31% of spec­i­mens pos­i­tive for two or ­more ­agents, and HSV DNA was de­tect­ed in 10% of stud­ied pop­u­la­tion.
Conclusions. The con­com­i­tant pres­ence of dif­fer­ent in­fec­tious ­agents ­could deter­mine la­tent, sub-clin­i­cal or chron­ic in­fec­tions ­with pe­ri­od­ic re­ac­ti­va­tion. In par­tic­u­lar re­sults sug­gest ­that HPV and HSV may stim­u­late cy­to­kine pro­duc­tion ­which can up reg­u­late the ex­pres­sion of oth­er in­fec­tious ­agents and may be re­spon­sible for la­tent chla­my­di­al in­fec­tions char­ac­ter­ised by the per­sis­tence of ­this mi­cror­gan­ism in an al­tered ­form, vi­able but in a cul­ture neg­a­tive ­state. Therefore an in­creased aware­ness of ­mixed in­fec­tions is rel­e­vant to de­fine the man­age­ment and treat­ment of chron­ic ure­thri­tis.