The feature of cervical microbiota associated with the progression of cervical cancer among reproductive females

The aim of this study was to characterize cervical microbiome feature of reproductive-age women in the progression of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) to cervical cancer. We characterized the 16S rDNA cervical mucus microbiome in 94 participants (age from 18 to 52), including 13 cervical cancer (CA), 31 high-grade SIL (HSIL), 10 low-grade SIL (LSIL), 12 HPV-infected (NH) patients and 28 healthy controls (NN). Alpha (within sample) diversity was examined by Shannon and Simpson index, while Beta (between sample) diversity by principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) of weighted Unifrac distances. Relative abundance of microbial taxa was compared using Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LEfSe). Co-occurrence analysis was performed to identify correlation among marker genera, and Phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) to explore functional features and pathways of cervical microbiota. Alpha diversity(p