Cervicovaginal-Microbiome Analysis by 16S Sequencing and Real-Time PCR in Patients from Novosibirsk (Russia) with Cervical Lesions and Several Years after Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Disturbed cervicovaginal-microbiome (CVM) structure promotes human papillomavirus (HPV) persistence and reflects risks of cervical lesions and cancer onset and recurrence. Therefore, microbiomic biomarkers may be useful for cervical disease screening and patient management. Here, by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and commercial PCR-based diagnostic kits, we profiled CVM in cytological preparations from 140 HPV-tested women (from Novosibirsk, Russia) with normal cytological findings, cervical lesions, or cancer and from 101 women who had recently received different cancer therapies. An increase in lesion severity was accompanied by higher HPV prevalence and elevated CVM biodiversity. Post-treatment CVM was found to be enriched with well-known microbial biomarkers of dysbiosis, just as in cervical disease. Nonetheless, concentrations of some skin-borne and environmental species (which gradually increased with increasing lesion severity)—especially Cutibacterium spp., Achromobacter spp., and Ralstonia pickettii—was low in post-treatment patients and depended on treatment types. Frequency of Lactobacillus iners dominance was high in all groups and depended on treatment types in post-treatment patients. Microbiome analysis via PCR-based kits revealed statistically significant differences among all groups of patients. Thus, microbiome profiling may help to find diagnostic and prognostic markers for management of cervical lesions; quantitative PCR-based kits may be suitable for these purposes.

Relationship between vaginal and oral microbiome in patients of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer

“…It was further confirmed that the depletion of Lactobacillus and the increase in specific anaerobes (such as Megasphaera , Prevotella and Gardnerella ) were related to cervical lesions [ 24 ]. LEfSe analysis identified cancer-specific vaginal biomarkers, including Mycoplasma , Bacillus , Bacteroides , Dialister , Peptoniphilus , Porphyromonas , Anaerococcus , Prevotella , and Sneathia , and the HPV + biomarker Bifidobacterium distinguished them from the control; the reliability of the experimental findings has been confirmed by other studies [ 13 , 27 – 29 ]. Bifidobacterium is a beneficial microorganism of the intestinal flora that has many functions, such as resisting harmful bacteria, exerting antitumour, increasing immunity and improving gastrointestinal function, and it also exists in the oral cavity and vagina [ 30 ].…”

Microbiome markers in HPV-positive and HPV-negative women of reproductive age with ASCUS and SIL determined by V4 region of 16S rRNA gene sequencing

“…For example, L. crispatus turned out to be the predominant Lactobacillus species in women with normocenosis for the ASCUS and LSIL groups, while L. iners prevailed in the HSIL group. There are contradictions in the works of other authors concerning L. iners: some studies show that it accompanies HPV infection and SIL (Wang et al, 2019;Sasivimolrattana et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2022), whereas other studies demonstrate no association of the kind (McKee et al, 2020;Gomez Cherey et al, 2023;Ivanov et al, 2023). L. crispatus is considered to protect from SIL progressing in HPV (Cheng et al, 2020), since it produces a lot of the D-isomer of lactic acid which increases the viscosity of the vaginal secrete and elevates its ability to sequester virions, in contrast to L. iners which produces only the L-isomer (Kalia et al, 2020;Nicolò et al, 2023).…”

Relationship between vaginal and oral microbiome in patients of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer

“…It was further con rmed that the depletion of Lactobacillus and the increase of speci c anaerobes (such as Megasphaera, Prevotell and Gardnerella vaginalis) were related to cervical lesions [25]. LEfSe analysis identi ed cancer-speci c vaginal biomarkers including Mycoplasma, Bacillus, Bacteroides, Dialister, Peptoniphilus, Porphyromonas, Anaerococcus, Prevotella, Sneathia, and for HPV + biomarker is bi dobacterium distinct them from control, the reliability of experimental ndings are con rmed by other studies [13,[28][29][30]. Bi dobacterium is a bene cial microorganism of intestinal ora, which has many functions such as resisting harmful bacteria, providing nutrition, anti-tumor, anti-aging, enhancing immunity and improving gastrointestinal function, it also exists in the oral cavity and vagina [31].…”