Cervical cancer, nuns and L. crispatus
- Aug 13
- 2 min read
What is common between nuns and cervical cancer?
Image: generated with AI
The connection between them, helped Italian doctor - Domenico Antonio Rigoni-Stern, a 19th century physician / surgeon to discover how women get cervical cancer. Or to be more precise – in nuns’ case – how not get cervical cancer, because they hadn’t cervical cancer.
He found that cervical (uterine) cancer deaths were very rare among nuns and virgins, but much more common among married women and widows. From his analysis of mortality records and death certificates, 1842 Rigoni-Stern published that cervical cancer was sexually transmitted. At that time, he didn’t know that the virus causes it.
Rigoni-Stern work laid a foundation that later researchers built on, ultimately leading to the discovery that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the principal cause of cervical cancer (work for which Harald zur Hausen received the 2008 Nobel Prize).
The most interesting thing is the native healthy vaginal Lactobacillus species and especially L. crispatus helps to protect women from HPV infection, when on the contrary dysbiotic microbiome state (including Bacterial vaginosis) helps virus to settle in and do his dark work. Of course, the best protection is the vaccine, but healthy microbiome is super important.
1. Epithelial barrier - HPV must reach basal keratinocytes through micro-abrasions or disrupted epithelium to establish infection (in this case Bacterial vaginosis helps the virus, because it disrupts epithelium). L. crispatus helps block this step.
2. Acidic Ph - L. crispatus is a strong producer of lactic acid, which maintains a low vaginal pH (~3.8–4.5) and provides direct and indirect antiviral effects.
3. Antimicrobial compounds and competition with BV-associated bacteria. By suppressing dysbiotic, BV-associated communities, L. crispatus indirectly reduces HPV risk.
4. Immunomodulation favoring antiviral responses. L. crispatus actively shapes local immunity in ways that support HPV control.
5. Direct effects on HPV.
Some types of Lactobacillus bacteria can “turn down” two harmful proteins (called E6 and E7) that HPV makes. These proteins normally push infected cells to keep dividing and stop them from dying when they should. By reducing E6 and E7, these Lactobacillus strains help slow the growth of infected cells and encourage them to die off naturally, which lowers the chance of abnormal changes turning into cancer (1).
Get that vaccine and protect your microbiome and of course don’t forget to enjoy your life – you don’t have to be a nun to be healthy.
