Oct 17, 2014 04:09 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Current tobacco users or those who had higher biomarkers of tobacco exposure were more likely to be diagnosed with sexually transmitted infection oral human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16), according to a study by John Hopkins School of Medicine.

The researchers found an association between self-reported cigarette use per day and oral HPV occurrence.

Oral HPV-16 is blamed for the rise in oropharyngeal squamous cell cancers in the United States.

For the study, the researchers explored links between objective biomarkers reflective of all current tobacco exposures (environmental, smoking, and use of smoke­less tobacco) and oral HPV-16 prevalence.

They used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that included 6,887 participants, aged between 14 and 69 years. Of whom 2,012 (28.6 percent) were current tobacco users and 63 (1.0 percent) were detected with oral HPV-16.

Computer-assisted self-interviews were conducted to determine self-reported tobacco use and sexual behaviors. Self­-reported tobacco use comprised of any nicotine­containing product smoked in the past five days. Biomarkers of tobacco use includes serum cotinine, a major nicotine metabolite, and urinary 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL), a tobacco -specific carcinogenic metabolite.

The researchers found that current tobacco users were more likely to be male, younger, less educated, and to have a higher number of lifetime oral sexual partners.

Self-reported and biological measures of tobacco exposure as well as oral sexual behavior were significantly related with prevalence of oral HPV-16 infection.

Oral HPV-16 incidence in current tobacco users was 2.0 percent as compared to 0.6 percent among never or former tobacco users. Plus, average cotinine and NNAL levels were present in higher quantities in participants with oral HPV-16 infection.

"These findings highlight the need to evaluate the role of tobacco in the natural history of oral HPV-16 infection and progression to malignancy," the authors write in a press release.

The finding is published in the journal JAMA.          

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