RPS19 and TYMS SNPs and Prevalent High Risk Human Papilloma Virus Infection in Nigerian Women

High risk HPV (hrHPV) infection is a necessary cause of cervical cancer but the host genetic determinants of infection are poorly understood. We enrolled 267 women who presented to our cervical cancer screening program in Abuja, Nigeria between April 2012 and August 2012. We collected information on demographic characteristics, risk factors of cervical cancer and obtained samples of blood and cervical exfoliated cells from all participants. We used Roche Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test® to characterize the prevalent HPV according to manufacturer's instruction; Sequenom Mass Array to test 21 SNPs in genes/regions previously associated with hrHPV and regression models to examine independent factors associated with HPV infection. We considered a p<0.05 as significant because this is a replication study. There were 65 women with and 202 women without hrHPV infection. Under the allelic model, we found significant association between two SNPs, rs2305809 on RPS19 and rs2342700 on TYMS, and prevalent hrHPV infection. Multivariate analysis of hrHPV risk adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, age of menarche, age at sexual debut, lifetime total number of sexual partners and the total number of pregnancies as covariates, yielded a p-value of 0.071 and 0.010 for rs2305809 and rs2342700, respectively. Our findings in this unique population suggest that a number of genetic risk variants for hrHPV are shared with other population groups. Definitive studies with larger sample sizes and using genome wide approaches are needed to understand the genetic architecture of hrHPV risk in multiple populations.