Is it possible to remove HPV from the body by strengthening the immune system?

Question

I saw some content which says HPV can be removed from the body by strengthening the immune system:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt05-hpv.html

Most HPV infections are transient and asymptomatic. More than 90% of new HPV infections, including those caused by high-risk HPV types, clear or become undetectable within 2 years, and clearance usually occurs in the first 6 months after infection.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/have-hpv-how-to-clear-the-infection-naturally

Some studies estimate that 50 percent of those infected with HPV will clear the virus within eight months— and 90 percent will be cured within two years.

https://icnim.jpn.org/en/research_topics/ (a food supplement is proposed named AHCC)

At the Society for Integrative Oncology’s (SIO) 15th International Conference, Dr. Judith A. Smith of the University of Texas presented preliminary results of her ongoing NIH-granted phase II clinical trial investigating the functions of AHCC to eradicate chronic HPV infection.

Preliminary results from one of the presentations made at the recent Society for Integrative Oncology 15th international conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, showed that daily supplementation with AHCC could support the host immune system to eradicate Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection in women with HPV-positive PAP smears.

At the time of the preliminary analysis, 46 patients had completed the study. The results showed that at six months, 58.8 percent of the patients taking AHCC🄬 showed no signs of the infection.

In 90% of cases, the immune system naturally clears the virus away within two years.

It would be great to hear that's correct.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Most of HPV infections are cleared by the immune system, but there are cases of persistent HPV infections:

In the majority of infected individuals, HPV infection is cleared by the immune system within a couple years of onset; however, the viral infection can continue to persist latently in a subset of the population. These patients with persistent HPV infection have an increased chance of acquiring epithelial cell abnormalities and subsequently developing cancers at the site of infection. Though such progression to cancer is relatively rare, the prevalence of the virus among the general population makes HPV-associated persistent infection a statistically significant affliction.

Risk factors that may prevent the natural clearance of HPV persistent infection in certain populations have been a major source of interest. Several studies have discovered that genetic and lifestyle factors can significantly increase the probability of developing persistent infection. For instance, multiple studies have found both smoking and alcohol use to be significant risk factors of persistent oral and genital HPV infection. It has been proposed that the carcinogens in cigarette smoke increase viral load as well as the likelihood of cancerous transformation of the epithelial cells infected with HPV.

^{Shanmugasundaram S, You J. Targeting Persistent Human Papillomavirus Infection. Viruses. 2017;9(8):229. Published 2017 Aug 18. doi:10.3390/v9080229}

^{See also: Radley D, Saah A, Stanley M. Persistent infection with human papillomavirus 16 or 18 is strongly linked with high-grade cervical disease. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2016;12(3):768-772. doi:10.1080/21645515.2015.1088616}

Persistent infections is a very complicated topic, but the levels of virus load and viral protein synthesis is so low that the infection is undetected by the immune system:

By continuously replicating at low levels in a differentiating tissue, such as the basal epithelium, the papillomavirus is able to maintain a reserve in the host while simultaneously avoiding detection by the immune system. During this stage of the infectious cycle, known as maintenance replication, viral genomes are able to partition themselves into the newly formed daughter cells by coordinating their replication with that of the host cell. Later in the infectious cycle, the virus enters a stage of vegetative amplification in which it replicates high levels of genomic products that are fated to be assembled into complete viral particles. This last stage tends to occur in terminally differentiating cell tissues, such as the upper epidermal layers that are destined to be sloughed off and thus are not strictly monitored by the host immune system. Higher levels of viral replication and assembly are observed in these layers because they tend not to trigger an immune response.

^ibid.

So strengthening your immune system would not help to clear the HPV infection if it is undetected by your immune system.