Vaginal microbiota and human papillomavirus infection among young Swedish women

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. To define the HPV-associated microbial community among a high vaccination coverage population, we carried out a cross-sectional study with 345 young Swedish women. The microbial composition and its association with HPV infection, including 27 HPV types, were analyzed. Microbial alpha-diversity was found significantly higher in the HPV-infected group (especially with oncogenic HPV types and multiple HPV types), compared with the HPV negative group. The vaginal microbiota among HPV-infected women was characterized by a larger number of bacterial vaginosis-associated bacteria (BVAB), Sneathia, Prevotella, and Megasphaera. In addition, the correlation analysis demonstrated that twice as many women with non-Lactobacillus-dominant vaginal microbiota were infected with oncogenic HPV types, compared with L. crispatus-dominated vaginal microbiota. The data suggest that HPV infection, especially oncogenic HPV types, is strongly associated with a non-Lactobacillus-dominant vaginal microbiota, regardless of age and vaccination status.