Allali Malika, Errafii Khaoula, El Fermi Rachid, Fichtali Karima, El Majjaoui Sanaa, El Ghanmi Adil, El Fazazi Hicham, Al Idrissi Najib, Ghazi Bouchra, Bakri Youssef, Ghazal Hassan, Hamdi Salsabil
Virology and Public Health Laboratory, Institut Pasteur du Maroc, Casablanca 20360, Morocco.
Laboratory of Human Pathologies Biology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University Mohammed V, Rabat 10000, Morocco.
Microorganisms. 2025 Aug 13;13(8):1884. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms13081884.
Cervical cancer (CC), often caused by persistent high-risk HPV infection, is a major health issue for Moroccan women. This study is the first in Morocco to examine how the cervico-vaginal microbiome differs across HPV-related clinical stages. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, the researchers analyzed samples from 247 women-100 healthy controls, 43 hr-HPV pre-cancer cases, and 104 post-treatment CC cases. In healthy women, dominated (70%), but it significantly declined in the pre-cancer group (45%, < 0.01) and remained low post-treatment (50%). Meanwhile, Pseudomonadota and Actinobacteriota increased in pre-cancer samples (up to 25-30%, < 0.01). Although the alpha diversity remained stable, the beta diversity differed significantly across stages ( = 0.001), but not by HPV status. Post-treatment samples showed a sharp decline in Bacillota (logFC -5, < 10) and increases in Campylobacterota and Fusobacteriota (logFC +6 to +21, < 10). Functionally, chemo-heterotrophy and fermentation declined, while nitrogen fixation and phototrophy rose in pre-cancer cases. Host factors like late menarche, high parity, STIs, and contraceptive use correlated with specific microbiota shifts.
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