Cohorts of participants within the lowest salary range and with the largest number of total sex partners showed greater seroconversion
Significant personal factors and bacteria
The baseline personal significant factors and metagenomic data are shown as eleven items in Table 1. Among the HPV-negative cohort, negative conversion and HPV-positive subjects, both age and history of reproductive tract infection had a consistent pattern. Another two significant demographic and behavioral factors were the salary range and the total number of sex partners with an inconsistent pattern. The negative HPV test results tended to be associated with higher salaries. HPV-negative subjects had the lowest number of total sex partners.
After adjusting for age, salary, history of reproductive tract infection and the total number of sexual partners, the metagenomics data showed that both Lactobacillus jensenii and Streptococcus agalactiae were a relatively abundant part of the VMB, and another 5 types were pseudosignificant due to the limited sample size in this pilot study. Lactobacillus jensenii, for example, had a relatively higher proportion in the HPV-positive group and a reduced proportion in the seroconversion group. The presence of Streptococcus agalactiae seemed to have a correlation between HPV-negative and HPV-positive seroconversion.
Correlation between personal factors and microbiome
To determine the stable potential candidate biomarkers, a correlation analysis was conducted between four significant personal factors and seven microorganism species, as shown in Fig 5. Age has a significant association with atopobium vaginae and mycoplasma hominis in HPV-negative samples; atopobium vaginae and prevotella bivia are present in the seroconversion cases; mycoplasma hominis and prevotella bivia are abundant in the HPV-positive group. Mycoplasma hominis was not found in the seroconverted cohort.Read More