Vaginal microbiota metabolome alteration in HPV-positive women

To explore the difference in vaginal microbial metabolism in women with and without human papillomavirus infection.

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to analyze metabolites, then non-targeted metabolomics was conducted to analyze vaginal microbiota and reveal the effect of HPV on metabolomics.

A total of 496 metabolites were identified by the metabolic analysis, of which 43 were differentially expressed metabolites. Compared with the control group, 29 metabolites were increased and 14 metabolites decreased in HPV-infected patients. Major changes in amino acid, lipid, and nucleotide metabolism were observed. These data provide evidence of significantly enriched metabolic pathways of HPV-positive women based on vaginal secretions, including amino acid biosynthesis, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, protein digestion and absorption, mineral absorption, central carbon metabolism, ABC transporter, 2-oxycarboxylic acid metabolism, glycine serine and threonine metabolism.

The vaginal metabolites of HPV-positive women differ from HPV-negative women, including amino acid, lipid and nucleotide-related metabolites. Our findings refine the current understanding of the influence of HPV infection on vaginal metabolism and lay the groundwork to find new intervention approaches against HPV infection.