Variants of human papillomaviruses 16 and 18 and their natural history in human immunodeficiency virus-positive women Schlecht, Nicolas F. and Burk, Robert D. and Palefsky, Joel M. and Minkoff, Howard and Xue, Xiaonan and Massad, L. Stewart and Bacon, Melanie and Levine, Alexandra M. and Anastos, Kathryn and Gange, Stephen J. and Watts, D. Heather and Costa, Maria M. Da and Chen, Zigui and Bang, Ji Yon and Fazzari, Melissa and Hall, Charles and Strickler, Howard D.,, 86, 2709-2720 (2005), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.81060-0, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-1317, abstract= Highly oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 and 18 variants might be expected to be particularly aggressive in HIV-positive women. The association of HPV16 and 18 variant lineages with race, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection, CD4+ T-cell count, HIV-RNA level, time-to-clearance of HPV infection and presence of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) among women in the Women's Interagency HIV Study was studied. Subjects were followed semi-annually with Pap smear and cervicovaginal lavage (CVL). HPV DNA was detected in CVLs using MY09/11 L1 PCR assay. Specimens positive for HPV16/18 underwent E6 PCR and sequencing to determine the variant present. Specimens from 195 HPV16- and 162 HPV18-positive women were classified into variant lineages based on sequencing results. African variants of HPV16 and HPV18 were significantly more prevalent among African-Americans than among Caucasians [42 versus 14 % (P=0·001) and 60 versus 13 % (P<0·001), respectively]. However, it was not possible to detect associations between the HPV16 or 18 variant lineages and other factors studied. African variants of HPV16/18 were more common in women of African descent living outside Africa, which could reflect mixing behaviours and/or immunogenetic factors. However, in a large population of HIV-infected women, the variant of HPV16 or 18 was unrelated to persistence of infection or presence of SIL. If non-European variants are more oncogenic, the effect may involve a late stage in cervical tumorigenesis., language=, type=