Whole Transcriptome-Based Skin Virome Profiling in Typical Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis Reveals Α-, Β-, and Γ-Hpv Infections Publisher Pubmed



Saeidian AH^{1, 2, 3} ; Youssefian L^{1, 2, 4} ; Naji M⁵ ; Mahmoudi H⁶ ; Barnada SM⁷ ; Huang C^{1, 2} ; Naghipoor K⁸ ; Hozhabrpour A⁹ ; Park JS^{1, 2, 10} ; Margiotta FM¹¹ ; Vahidnezhad F¹² ; Saffarian Z^{6, 13} ; Kamyabhesari K⁶ ; Tolouei M¹⁴ Show All Authors
Source: JCI Insight Published:2023

Abstract

HPVs are DNA viruses include approximately 450 types that are classified into 5 genera (α-, β-, γ-, μ-, and ν-HPV). The γ- and β-HPVs are present in low copy numbers in healthy individuals; however, in patients with an inborn error of immunity, certain species of β-HPVs can cause epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), manifesting as recalcitrant cutaneous warts and skin cancer. EV presents as either typical or atypical. Manifestations of typical EV are limited to the skin and are caused by abnormal keratinocyte-intrinsic immunity to β-HPVs due to pathogenic sequence variants in TMC6, TMC8, or CIB1. We applied a transcriptome-based computational pipeline, VirPy, to RNA extracted from normal-appearing skin and wart samples of patients with typical EV to explore the viral and human genetic determinants. In 26 patients, 9 distinct biallelic mutations were detected in TMC6, TMC8, and CIB1, 7 of which are previously unreported to our knowledge. Additionally, 20 different HPV species, including 3 α-HPVs, 16 β-HPVs, and 1 γ-HPV, were detected, 8 of which are reported here for the first time to our knowledge in patients with EV (β-HPV-37, -47, -80, -151, and -159; α-HPV-2 and -57; and γ-HPV-128). This study expands the TMC6, TMC8, and CIB1 sequence variant spectrum and implicates new HPV subtypes in the pathogenesis of typical EV. Copyright: © 2023, Saeidian et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.