Serum and cervicovaginal IgG immune responses against [alpha]7 and [alpha]9 HPV in non-vaccinated women at risk for cervical cancer: Implication for catch-up prophylactic HPV vaccination

Background Cervical cancer associated with high risk-human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection is becoming the one of the most common female cancer in many sub-Saharan African countries. First-generation immigrant African women living in Europe are at-risk for cervical cancer, in a context of social vulnerability, with frequent lack of cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. Objective Our objective was to address immunologically the issue of catch-up prophylactic HPV vaccination in first-generation African immigrant women living in France. Methods IgG immune responses and cross-reactivities to [alpha]7 (HPV-18, -45 and -68) and [alpha]9 (HPV-16, -31, -33, -35, -52 and -58) HPV types, including 7 HR-HPV targeted by the Gardasil-9.sup.® prophylactic vaccine, were evaluated in paired serum and cervicovaginal secretions (CVS) by HPV L1-virus-like particles-based ELISA. Genital HPV were detected by multiplex real time PCR (Seegene, Seoul, South Korea). Results Fifty-one immigrant women (mean age, 41.7 years; 72.5% HIV-infected) were prospectively included. More than two-third (68.6%) of them carried genital HPV (group I) while 31.4% were negative (group II). The majority (90.2%) exhibited serum IgG to at least one [alpha]7/[alpha]9 HR-HPV. Serum HPV-specific IgG were more frequently detected in group I than group II (100% versus 68.7%; P = 0.002). The distribution of serum and genital HPV-specific IgG was similar, but mean number of IgG reactivities to [alpha]7/[alpha]9 HR-HPV was higher in serum than CVS (5.6 IgG per woman in serum versus 3.2 in CVS; P