Microbiota dynamics in HPV-Infected individuals: implications for cervical neoplasia development

Area of Science:

• Microbiome research
• Gynecologic oncology
• Infectious disease

Background:

• Vaginal microbiota alterations are implicated in cervical neoplasia pathogenesis.
• Limited understanding exists regarding HPV subtype-specific microbiota changes and gut microbiota variations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate shifts in vaginal and intestinal microbiota in relation to cervical neoplasia progression and HPV infection.
• To explore the diagnostic potential of microbiota in cervical neoplasia and HPV infection.

Main Methods:

• Collected 578 vaginal and intestinal specimens from 348 subjects.
• Performed 16S rRNA sequencing for microbiota analysis.
• Utilized R language for statistical analysis and Random Forest for classification.

Main Results:

• Significant alterations in vaginal and intestinal microbiota diversity were observed across cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) stages and cervical carcinoma.
• Specific vaginal and intestinal bacterial genera were associated with different CIN stages and HPV types.
• Intestinal bacteria demonstrated higher predictive accuracy for differentiating CIN I from CIN III (85.52%) and predicting HPV infection (AUC >81%) compared to vaginal bacteria.

Conclusions:

• Cervical neoplasia and HPV infection are intricately linked with both vaginal and intestinal microbiota composition.
• Gut microbiota holds significant potential for the diagnosis of cervical neoplasia and HPV infection, offering higher predictive accuracy in certain scenarios.
• Findings suggest potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications of targeting the gut-vaginal microbiome axis in cervical cancer management.