Vaginosis-associated bacteria and its association with HPV infection

Abstract

Background and objective: Cervical cancer is an important health problem in our country. It is known that there are several risk factors for this neoplasm, and it has been suggested that cervical microbiome alterations could play a role in the development and progress of cancer. Bacterial vaginosis associated bacteria such as Atopobium vaginae and Gardnerella vaginalis has been suggested as potential risk factor for cervical lesions and cervical cancer.

Material and methods: DNA from 177 cervical scraping samples was studied: 104 belonged to women without cytological or colposcopic alterations and 73 samples from precursor lesions with previous human papillomavirus (HPV) infection history. All samples were screened for Atopobium vaginae, Gardnerella vaginalis and HPV by PCR.

Results: High HPV prevalence was found in precursor samples, and 30% of samples without lesions were positive for HPV. Virtually all samples contained sequences of both bacteria, and interestingly, there was not HPV association observed; these results could suggest that these microorganisms could be part of the cervical microbiome in Mexican population.

Conclusions: The results obtained indicate that the bacteria analysed could be part of normal biome in Mexican women, suggesting a potential reconsideration of the pathogen role of these microorganisms.

Keywords: Atopobium vaginae; Bacterial vaginosis; Cervical cancer; Cáncer cervicouterino; Gardnerella vaginalis; Human papilloma virus; Vaginosis bacteriana; Virus del papiloma humano.