Some Strains of HPV May Raise CVD Risk
Researchers may have uncovered yet another risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD): human papillomavirus (HPV).
New research suggests high-risk strains of HPV, which is the most common sexually transmitted infection around the world, may be significantly associated with incident CVD risk, especially in patients with obesity and/or metabolic syndrome.1
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These findings emerged from a study of 63,411 Korean women aged 30 years or older without CVD at baseline. All participants in the study were tested for high-risk HPV and were followed annually or biennially from 2011 to 2016.
Among the 4779 (7.6%) women who tested positive for high-risk HPV, 1122 new cases of CVD were identified over 261,598.9 person-years of follow-up, with an incidence rate of 4.3 per 103 person-years.
The association between high-risk HPV and CVD remained significant after adjustment for potential confounding factors and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hazard ratio [HR] 1.25). Among individuals with obesity and metabolic syndrome, this association appeared to be even stronger.
For incident CVD, the multivariable-adjusted HR was 1.10 in HPV-positive participants without obesity and 1.73 in those with obesity compared with HPV-negative participants. Multivariable-adjusted HRs were 1.09 for HPV-positive participants without metabolic syndrome and 1.99 for participants with metabolic syndrome compared with those without HPV.
“A better understanding of high-risk HPV as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and possible combined effects of high-risk HPV, obesity and metabolic syndrome in increasing cardiovascular disease risk may help improve preventive strategies and patient outcomes,” said the study’s senior coauthor Seungho Ryu, MD, PhD, professor at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital at the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in South Korea, in a press release.2
“Further studies are required to identify specific high-risk HPV genotypes that may contribute to cardiovascular disease and to examine whether vaccine strategies to reduce high-risk HPV infection for cancer prevention may also help reduce cardiovascular disease,” Dr Ryu added.2
The findings were published in Circulation Research.
—Christina Vogt
References:
1. Joo EJ, Chang Y, Kwon MJ, Cho A, Cheong HS, Ryu S. High-risk human papillomavirus infection and the risk of cardiovascular disease in Korean women: a cohort study [Published online February 7, 2019]. Circulation Res. doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.313779.
2. High-risk sexually transmitted HPV virus associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk [press release]. Dallas, TX. American Heart Association. February 7, 2019. Accessed on February 7, 2019. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/high-risk-sexually-transmitted-hpv-virus-associated-with-increased-cardiovascular-disease-risk?preview=9630.