High abundance of high-risk Human Papillomavirus genotypes in wastewater in Uruguay

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in wastewater of Salto city, Uruguay, in order to obtain a general overview of the circulating genotypes in their population. HPV was detected in 34% (32/93) of the wastewater samples collected and analyzed during 2020/21 in Salto city, Uruguay. Thirty-three genotypes were observed, of which 16 presented read abundance higher than 1%, including both high-risk (HR) and low-risk (LR) genotypes. HR genotypes 31, 16, 58, 52, 33 and 59 were detected representing 40% (163,220 reads) of the total read abundance, with genotypes 31 (64,365), 16 (39,337) and 58 (36,332) being the most abundant. LR genotypes 72, 6, 11 and 40 were also detected in a high frequency, accounting for 37% (148,359) of the HPV reads. This study highlights the high frequency of HR genotypes of HPV, circulating in the population of Salto city which is a burden in public health mainly due to the devastating impact of cervical cancer in women. HIGHLIGHTS This was the first study analyzing the HPV genotype circulation by next-generation sequencing in wastewater in developing countries.; Thirty-three genotypes of HPV were detected in wastewater in Uruguay.; High-risk (HR) genotypes represented 40% of the HPV reads.; Low-risk (LR) genotypes were also detected in a high frequency (37%).; This study reveals the impact of HR HPV genotypes in public health mainly due to cervical cancer.;

Keywords

• genotypes
• high-risk
• human papillomavirus
• next-generation sequencing
• wastewater