Antibiotic-free vaginal microbiota transplantation (VMT) changes vaginal microbiota and immune profile in women with asymptomatic dysbiosis – reporting of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Abstract

Here, we describe the first placebo-controlled trial of vaginal microbiota transplantation (VMT) in women with asymptomatic dysbiosis without the use of antibiotic pretreatment. Importantly, we also describe the implementation of a donor program and banking of donor cervicovaginal secretions (CVS) while retaining sample viability, which is crucial to allow for scale-up and confirmatory quality testing. By metagenome sequencing, we demonstrate that VMT provided a significant increase in combinedLactobacillusspecies in the active arm and strain-level genetic analysis confirmedLactobacillusengraftment. Moreover, VMT was well tolerated and showed a good safety profile. Furthermore, a shift toward increasedLactobacilluswas associated with a change in the expression profile of genes in the complement pathway to a more anti-inflammatory profile. Vaginal microbial and immune profile restoration using VMT may have a positive impact on a wide range of conditions in women’s health.