Angela Serafini, Giuditta Fiorella Schiavano, Mauro De Santi, Michele De Nictolis, Giorgio Brandi
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide. Only a small percentage of high-risk (HR) HPV infections progress to cervical precancer and cancer. Recent research indicates the potential association between the variation of vaginal microbiota and the acquisition and persistence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. However, the association of STIs with HPV cervical infection and cervicovaginal lesions has not yet been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to assess how G. vaginalis is associated with HPV infection and cervical dysplasia, and the beneficial role of Lactobacillus.
Methods: A total of 723 women aged between 17 and 79 years were studied. A complete cervico-vaginal swab for a cervico-vaginal cytological examination (Pap test) and the simultaneous identification, by Real-Time PCR, of the presence of HR-HPV and other STI pathogens, was conducted.
Results: The HPV positive women were 37.2%, with a prevalence significantly different in the various age groups. The most frequent genotype was HPV-16, while G. vaginalis was found in 369 women, in which 51.8% of cases occurred together with HPV-HR, highlighting a significant association between the two infections (p < 0.001). Moreover, a marked reduction in HR-HPV infection was observed in the presence of Lactobacillus. (p < 0.001). All-grade lesions were significantly associated with G. vaginalis and detected in 65.4% of G. vaginalis-positive samples (p < 0.01).
Conclusions: The results of this study strengthen the hypothesis of the association between HPV infections and microbiota in cervical lesions.
期刊介绍：
Infectious Agents and Cancer is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of basic, clinical, epidemiological and translational research providing an insight into the association between chronic infections and cancer.
The journal welcomes submissions in the pathogen-related cancer areas and other related topics, in particular:
• HPV and anogenital cancers, as well as head and neck cancers;
• EBV and Burkitt lymphoma;
• HCV/HBV and hepatocellular carcinoma as well as lymphoproliferative diseases;
• HHV8 and Kaposi sarcoma;
• HTLV and leukemia;
• Cancers in Low- and Middle-income countries.
The link between infection and cancer has become well established over the past 50 years, and infection-associated cancer contribute up to 16% of cancers in developed countries and 33% in less developed countries.
Preventive vaccines have been developed for only two cancer-causing viruses, highlighting both the opportunity to prevent infection-associated cancers by vaccination and the gaps that remain before vaccines can be developed for other cancer-causing agents. These gaps are due to incomplete understanding of the basic biology, natural history, epidemiology of many of the pathogens that cause cancer, the mechanisms they exploit to cause cancer, and how to interrupt progression to cancer in human populations. Early diagnosis or identification of lesions at high risk of progression represent the current most critical research area of the field supported by recent advances in genomics and proteomics technologies.
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