Microorganisms (Oct 2019)

Oncogenic Virome Benefits from the Different Vaginal Microbiome-Immune Axes

  • Giuseppina Campisciano,
  • Tarik Gheit,
  • Francesco De Seta,
  • Carolina Cason,
  • Nunzia Zanotta,
  • Serena Delbue,
  • Giuseppe Ricci,
  • Pasquale Ferrante,
  • Massimo Tommasino,
  • Manola Comar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7100414
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. 414

Abstract

Read online

The picture of dynamic interaction between oncogenic viruses and the vaginal bacteria-immune host milieu is incomplete. We evaluated the impact of Polyomaviridae, Papillomaviridae, and Herpesviridae oncoviruses on the vaginal Community State Types (CSTs) and host immune response in reproductive-age women. In our cohort, only Polyomaviridae and Papillomaviridae were detected and were associated with changes in the resident bacteria of CST I and IV (p < 0.05). Lactobacillus crispatus increased in CST I while Prevotella timonensis and Sneathia sanguinegens increased in CST IV. Conversely, CST II and III showed an alteration of the immune response, with the decrease of Eotaxin, MCP-1, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-15 (p < 0.05), leading to reduced antiviral efficacy. An efficient viral clearance was observed only in women from CST I, dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus. Our in vivo study begins to address the knowledge gap with respect to the role of vaginal bacteria and immune response in susceptibility to oncoviral infections.

Keywords