Needling and MMR effective therapeutic modalities for management of genital warts

A new study published in the International Journal of Dermatology by Nehal El-Fakkar and team showed that both measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and needling are efficient immunotherapeutic methods for treating genital warts.

One of the most typical sexually transmitted illnesses is genital warts brought on by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The long latency, many lesions, high recurrence rate, and propensity for malignant transformation are significant therapeutic problems. Traditional treatment approaches are known to be lesion-focused, but intralesional immunotherapy was developed to act beyond individual lesions and to address the issues from the past by injecting known antigens, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, to arouse the immune system against HPV. Another immunotherapeutic method that does not involve injecting antigens is needle-induced autoinoculation. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to examine the effectiveness of needling-induced autoinoculation for treating genital warts. 

50 patients were split into two equal groups, each with four or more recurring genital warts. One group received intralesional MMR injections every two weeks for a total of three sessions, whereas the other received needling-induced autoinoculation. Following the final session, follow-up was conducted for 8 weeks.

The key findings of this study were:

1. The therapeutic effects of both needling and MMR were statistically significant. 

2. The number of lesions and their size both significantly improved after needling (P = 0.000 and P = 0.003, respectively). 

3. Parallel to this, MMR demonstrated a substantial improvement in both the quantity and size (P = 0.001 and P = 0.021, respectively) of lesions. 

4. Regarding the quantity (P = 0.860) and size (P = 0.929) of lesions, there was no statistical significant difference between the outcomes of the two treatments.

Reference: 

El‐fakkar, N. M. Z., El‐Khateeb, E. A., & Gamal, N. (2023). Evaluation of needling‐induced autoinoculation in the management of genital warts. In International Journal of Dermatology. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijd.16723