Screening for Oral High-risk Human Papillomavirus (HPV) among a Pediatric Patient Population | Chapter 10 | Emerging Research in Medical Sciences Vol. 2
Introduction: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a known cancer-causing virus that has been primarily linked to cervical cancers. Recent studies have shown that HPV may also induce cancer in other tissues, including oral epithelia and mucosa. To determine the presence of oral HPV infection among pediatric patients, salivary samples were assessed to determine oral prevalence of high-risk HPV. Methods: Using existing pediatric saliva samples from pediatric clinic patients (aged 6 - 16 years), this retrospective study involved isolating DNA for PCR screening for both high-risk strains of HPV (HPV16, HPV18). A total of n=98 patient samples were available for analysis. Results: Demographic analysis of these samples revealed the majority were derived from females (63.2%) and mostly from Hispanics (54.1%). DNA was successfully isolated from 95.9% of samples (n=94/98) with an average concentration of 142.5 ng/uL. PCR screening demonstrated only a subset of patient samples harbored high...