{"doi":"10.1128/mbio.02677-25","title":"The vaginal microbiome, papillomavirus infection, and cervical cancer: established associations in search of model systems and mechanistic answers","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title/>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the causative factor for approximately 5% of all human cancers and the leading cause of cervical cancer. High-risk HPV-associated cervical cancer still claims more than 340,000 women’s lives globally each year despite the availability of prophylactic HPV vaccines. Currently, there is no medical treatment for HPV infections and associated lesions except invasive surgical procedures. For more than a decade, numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between certain community state types (CSTs) of the vaginal microbiome and HPV-associated infection and cancer. This review aims to provide a general overview of the most recent studies on this topic, focusing primarily on clinical data linking a\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Lactobacillus</jats:italic>\n                      -depleted vaginal microbiome (i.e., bacterial vaginosis and CST-IV) and HPV but also describing the limited mechanistic findings in the field. Finally, a novel mouse model addressing the causative effect of the vaginal microbiome on papillomavirus-associated disease progression and cancer development is proposed.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>","journal":"mBio","year":2026,"id":638994,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1460330,"name":"Sonia N. Whang","orcid":"0009-0000-1744-0801","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":379232,"name":"Nicole M. Gilbert","orcid":"0000-0003-4830-3257","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":490983,"name":"Jiafen Hu","orcid":"0000-0001-8700-9937","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1408957,"name":"Gianna V. Passarelli","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"The vaginal microbiome, papillomavirus infection, and cervical cancer: established associations in search of model systems and mechanistic answers","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title/>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the causative factor for approximately 5% of all human cancers and the leading cause of cervical cancer. High-risk HPV-associated cervical cancer still claims more than 340,000 women’s lives globally each year despite the availability of prophylactic HPV vaccines. Currently, there is no medical treatment for HPV infections and associated lesions except invasive surgical procedures. For more than a decade, numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between certain community state types (CSTs) of the vaginal microbiome and HPV-associated infection and cancer. This review aims to provide a general overview of the most recent studies on this topic, focusing primarily on clinical data linking a\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Lactobacillus</jats:italic>\n                      -depleted vaginal microbiome (i.e., bacterial vaginosis and CST-IV) and HPV but also describing the limited mechanistic findings in the field. Finally, a novel mouse model addressing the causative effect of the vaginal microbiome on papillomavirus-associated disease progression and cancer development is proposed.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.3862943611198906,"endowment":1.3862943611198906,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"41665359","pmcid":"PMC12977512","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W7128470226","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases","grant_id":"R01 DK137964","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Cancer Institute","grant_id":"R21 CA274265","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Cancer Institute","grant_id":"R21CA271069, R21AI121822","title":null}],"total_grants":3,"fwci":17.9432,"citation_percentile":0.98923199,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":3}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.02677-25","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.02677-25","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/mbio.02677-25","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41665359","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/789ba290f353455cb2693870ccec7886","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12977512/","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12977512","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12977512?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Reproductive tract infections research","Cervical Cancer and HPV Research","Gut microbiota and health","Female","Humans","Vagina","Microbiota","Papillomavirus Infections","Animals","Uterine Cervical Neoplasms","Human Papillomavirus Viruses","Disease Models, Animal","Mice","Vaginosis, Bacterial","Dysbiosis"],"mesh_terms":["Human Papillomavirus Viruses","Animals","Uterine Cervical Neoplasms","Disease Models, Animal","Female","Humans","Vagina","Vaginosis, Bacterial","Papillomaviridae","Papillomavirus Infections","Mice","Microbiota","Dysbiosis"],"keywords":["Bacterial vaginosis","Microbiome","Cervical cancer","Disease","Human microbiome","Human papillomavirus","Cancer","Vagina","Co-infection","Human papillomavirus (HPV)","Mouse Model","Dysbiosis","Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (Cin)","Vaginal Microbiome","Bacterial Vaginosis (Bv)","Lower Genital Infection","The Mouse Papillomavirus (Mmupv1)","Cervical Pathogenesis"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"doi"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-06T22:10:04.412722Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}