Microbiota and Metabolomics Study of Vaginal Lavage Fluid in Patients with Persistent HR-HPV Infection with Dampness-Heat Syndrome

  OBJECTIVE  To search for differential metabolites and potential metabolic pathways, and to reveal the relationship between continuous HR-HPV infection with vaginal microecological imbalance and TCM damp-heat syndrome with different degress of cervical lesions, the vaginal lavage fluid of patients who have continuous HR-HPV infection in the different degrees of cervical lesions with damp-heat syndrome is analyzed by metabolomics and 16S rDNA.

  METHODS  A total of 156 patients with HR-HPV persistent infection who were admitted to gynecology department of Jiangsu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from May 2020 to July 2020 were selected. Vaginal lavage fluid was collected for 16S rDNA gene sequencing and GC-MS metabolomics analysis.

  RESULTS  164 known metabolites were detected in Vaginal lavage, HSIL group showed significant difference from other groups secretion metabolic model, and found that the contents of taurine, guanine, uric acid and other metabolites were significantly different in patients with HR-HPV persistent dampness and damp-heat down type with different degrees of cervical lesions, which may be involved in a total of 7 metabolic pathways.

  CONCLUSION  Vaginal lavage fluid is easy to obtain and non-invasive, and has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool to assist in the diagnosis of HPV pathogenesis and SIL progression, and has a great promoting effect on the prevention of cervical cancer. With the progress of cervical lesions, the abundance of mirabilis, ciliates and other miscellaneous bacteria increases, while the abundance of Streptococcus decreases. Taurine, guanine, uric acid and other metabolites are associated with the activation of the human immune system. The cervix vaginal flora may play a significant role in the activation of inflammation and the immune system by regulating the synthesis and decomposition of amino acids, esters, purines and lipids. The metabolic characteristics of amino acids, purines and lipids in patients with persistent HR-HPV infection can be changed by Damp-heat down type.