The egg or the chicken - dysbiosis in cervical cancer
- May 14
- 3 min read
How can one word be associated with so many emotions, myths, stigma and overall knowledge only at fingertips and yet so much disinformation – cancer.
It sounds like a punishment, for nothing, for people who did nothing wrong. But research studies reveal new data in cervical cancer and that shows great news - we really can do something about it to prevent cervical cancer.
The International Journal of Molecular Sciences looked at something most oncologists rarely consider: the vaginal dysbiosis. And the picture it paints is impossible to ignore.
So, the egg or the chicken? Does the microbial dysbiosis cause virus to proliferate or virus itself creates dysbiosis?
The HPV virus itself works hard to suppress your production of peptides, that defend our body not only from pathogens, but also from viruses.
You would say, we were talking about cancer, why there is HPV virus? Well, HPV virus is the bad guy (literally you get it from the guy/gal or skin-to-skin contact) and it is the necessary cause of cervical cancer. But not all people who have virus will get cancer. The main point at the moment - how to defend yourself from the virus?
Ok, HPV suppresses your own defense peptides. Here it’s starts to get interesting. If the peptides from your body are released to fight bacteria and viruses, how about Lactobacilli, why do they survive? Apparently, Lactobacilli use our body’s produced peptides as a nutrition! And this is win -win for both sides!
So, the virus (HPV) – cuts off not only your defense mechanism, but also Lactobacilli’s chance to survive! It diminishes both protective shields – your own and your protectors.
As scientists A. Lebeau and colleagues demonstrated in their 2022 Nature Communications study: crucially, “the innate molecules that are downregulated by HPV infection are normally hydrolyzed and used by Lactobacillus species as an amino acid source sustaining their growth and survival. By cutting off this nutritional supply, the virus ultimately causes dysbiosis of the vaginal microbiota — revealed in the study as a new viral immune evasion strategy.” (1)
But when Lactobacilli dominance drops— when dysbiosis takes over — anaerobic bacteria like Sneathia, Gardnerella, and Fannyhessea move in. They drive local inflammation. They compromise the epithelial barrier.
And they create exactly the conditions that allow HPV to persist, advance, and transform into cancer.
In this view it seems the virus itself creates dysbiosis and nothing you can do about it. But is it really?
You can protect yourself from the virus! I will not suggest closing your intimate life and become a nun (now we know one of the reasons, why they lived longer in the Middle Ages 😊).
It looks like it’s both – the egg and the chicken. The already existing dysbiosis allows the virus to come in and proliferate in the first place.
You can protect yourself by having more of specific friends, like L. crispatus.
According to another study, L. crispatus not only protects from HPV, but is able to clear it.
“Extracellular vesicles (nCEVs) derived from L. crispatus demonstrate superior efficacy in blocking intravaginal HPV16 infection. Metabolic profiling revealed that D-lactate may be key to these functions — and L. crispatus predominantly secretes D-lactic acid.” 2,3
We screen for HPV. We do smear tests. Let’s include vaginal microbiome.
It may be one of the most modifiable variables in cervical cancer risk — meaning we could potentially intervene before cancer even begins.
What we can do by ourselves before seeing a doctor? We can protect ourselves and enhance L. crispatus, by protecting overall healthy microbiome, avoiding soaps with a pH higher than 4.5, eliminating smoking, getting some fruit or vegetables time to time and maybe Lactobacillus suppositories once a month (better after menstruations – there are fewer of them after menstruation), if you tend to get vaginal dysbiosis.
Happy microbiome to you!
#WomensHealth #CervicalCancer #Microbiome #HPV #PreventiveMedicine #Microbiology #WomenInScience #HealthResearch
