Human papillomavirus 58 (HPV58) is one type of HPV with high risk of causing cervical cancer. Unusually high prevalence of HPV58 has been reported in Asia, Africa and some other areas. However, due to the scattered distribution of global data, in addition to the lack of data of some HPV58 high-incidence nations and regions, like China's Mainland, a comprehensive analysis of the global geographical distribution of HPV58 remains blank so far. In this study, HPV58 from the human cervical cancer tissue was detected in China's Mainland, and 14 new HPV58-E6/L1 gene sequences were obtained. Moreover, phylogeographic analysis has been conducted combining the HPV58 sequences that have been deposited in GenBank since 1985. The study result shows that the sequences detected from the Shanghai, Jiangsu and Sichuan areas are homologous with those found in the past from Hong Kong and Xi'an, China, as well as Japan and other Southeast Asian areas. Furthermore, Western Africa is considered to be the "root" source of the HPV58 variant, while China's Mainland and Southeast Asia are "transit points" and the new sources of HPV58 after receiving the isolates from the "root" source; like HPV16 and HPV18, the HPV58 might also be one of the major HPV types associated with the development and spread of cervical cancer.
LI YanYun1, LI ZuoFeng2, HE YiFeng1, KANG Yu1, ZHANG XiaoYan1, CHENG MingJun1, ZHONG Yang2, 3· & XU CongJian1· 1 Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 200011, China
