Vaginal anaerobes are associated with cervicitis: A case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: Cervicitis is associated with important reproductive sequelae. Primary causes include chlamydia and gonorrhoea, but a known sexually transmitted infection (STI) is not identified in >50% of cases (i.e. STI-negative cervicitis). Bacterial vaginosis (BV) and specific BV-associated bacteria have also been associated with cervicitis, but data are limited. We investigated the association between STI-negative cervicitis and vaginal microbiota composition. METHODS: This was a case-control sub-study of the OhMG study conducted at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. Cases were women with cervicitis who tested negative for STIs (STI-negative cervicitis, n = 64). Controls were STI-negative asymptomatic women attending for STI-screening (n = 128). The vaginal microbiota was characterised using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Vaginal community state types were compared between cases and controls using logistic regression. Differential abundance analysis was performed to identify taxa associated with STI-negative cervicitis. RESULTS: STI-negative cervicitis cases were more likely than controls to have a Lactobacillus-deficient non-optimal microbiota (adjusted-odds-ratio 2.55, 95% CI 1.18-5.50). Compared to controls, cases had increased abundance of four BV-associated bacteria (Gardnerella, Fannyhessea vaginae, Prevotella bivia, Dialister micraerophilus) and decreased abundance of optimal lactobacilli. CONCLUSIONS: We report a positive association between non-optimal vaginal microbiota composition and STI-negative cervicitis. Specific anaerobic BV-associated bacteria may represent infectious causes of cervicitis.

Seegene Anyplex II assays detect HPV consistently using DNA extracts from different extraction methods.

The efficiency of PCR-based diagnostic assays can be impacted by the quality of DNA template, and anal samples can be particularly problematic due to the presence of faecal contaminants. Here, we compared the Quick-DNA Viral Kit (Zymo, Zymo Research, CA) and MagNA Pure 96 DNA and Viral NA Small Volume Kit (MP96, Roche) for use of the Seegene Anyplex II HPV28 assay (Anyplex28, Seegene) with anal samples. A total of 94 anal samples extracted using the MP96 and Zymo kits were tested via the Anyplex28, which detects high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV, Panel A) and low-risk (LR-HPV, Panel B) HPV types. Testing the HR-HPV types (Panel A), 86 (91.5%) MP96 and 84 (89.4%) Zymo samples were deemed assessable. Overall agreement between the two methods was 87/94 (92.6%, 95% CI: 85.3-97.0) with the Kappa value of 0.678 (0.5-0.9). Of the 87 assessable samples, 50 (57.5%) were concordant, 34 (39.1%) partially concordant, and 10 (11.5%)discordant. In conclusion, the Anyplex28 produces comparable HPV genotyping results when using DNA extracts from either of these two methods.