Associations between Vaginal Pathogenic Community and Bacterial Vaginosis in Chinese Reproductive-Age Women

Abstract

BackgroundBacterial vaginosis (BV) is one of the most common urogenital infections among women of reproductive age that represents shifts in microbiota from Lactobacillus spp. to diverse anaerobes. The aim of our study was to evalute the diagnostic values of Gardnerella, Atopobium, Eggerthella, Megasphaera typeI, Leptotrichia/Sneathia and Prevotella, defined as a vaginal pathogenic community for BV and their associations with vaginal pH and Nugent scores.Methods and FindingsWe investigated the vaginal pathogenic bacteria and Lactobacillus spp. with species-specific real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) in 50 BV-positive and 50 BV-negative Chinese women of reproductive age. Relative to BV-negative subjects, a siginificant decline in Lactobacillus and an obvious increase in bacteria in the vaginal pathogenic community were observed in BV-postive subjects (P<0.05). With the exception of Megasphaera typeI, other vaginal pathogenic bacteria were highly predictable for BV with a better sensitivity and specificity. The vaginal pathogenic community was positively associated with vaginal pH and Nugent scores, while Lactobacillus spp., such as L. iners and L. crispatus was negatively associated with them (P<0.05).ConclusionsOur data implied that the prevalance of vaginal pathogenic bacteria as well as the depletion of Lactobacillus was highly accurate for BV diagnosis. Vaginal microbiota shifts, especially the overgrowth of the vaginal pathogenic community, showed well diagnostic values in predicting BV. Postive correlations between those vaginal pathogenic bacteria and vaginal pH, Nugent score indicated the vaginal pathogenic community rather than a single vaginal microorganism, was participated in the onset of BV directly.

Comparative In silico Analysis of Butyrate Production Pathways in Gut Commensals and Pathogens

“…Interestingly, Fusobacterium is the only butyrogenic genus which showed twofold higher occurrence in all the patients suffering from CRC (95 samples) and IBD (101 samples). Also, although butyrogenic genus Megasphaera was not observed in the guts of the subjects considered in this study, it has been reported to have higher abundance in many diseased conditions (Bajaj et al, 2012; Ling et al, 2013; Chiu et al, 2014). The presence of butyrogenic bacteria in the guts of diseased individuals calls for an in-depth comparison of various butyrate production pathways in likely pathogens and commensals.…”

“…Similarly, Megasphaera elsdenii , another butyrogenic organism, was found to utilize only 4Ab pathway. The abundance of this genus has been reported to increase in case of diseased conditions like obesity, hepatic encephalopathy and bacterial vaginosis (Bajaj et al, 2012; Ling et al, 2013; Chiu et al, 2014). Thus, the results of the present study indicate possible correlation between butyrogenic gut bacteria that belong to genera which show higher abundance in diseased condition and lack of the pyruvate pathway.…”

The Vaginal Microbiota: What Have We Learned after a Decade of Molecular Characterization?

“…Two important areas of consensus emerged. First, almost all women carry vaginal lactobacilli regardless of their BV status by Nugent or Amsel criteria [19], [20], [22], [23], [25], [26], [33], [37]–[42], [45], [47], [48], [54], [59], [60], [62], [63], [73], [76], [80] but L. crispatus is predominantly found in BV-negative women [20], [22], [23], [25], [32], [33], [37], [38], [40], [42], [48], [50], [54], [59], [60], [62], [63], [65], [73], [75], [76], [80] whereas L. iners (and to a lesser extent L. gasseri ) is also found in women with intermediate microbiota or BV [21], [23], [25], [33], [37], [38], [40]–[42], [47], [50], [54], [59], [60], [62], [63], [65], [73], [76], …”

“…Vice versa, increasing abundance of lactobacilli is consistently associated with a lower vaginal pH [30], [40], [67], [80] and Nugent score [80]. Associations with the other Amsel criteria have been less well studied, but one study found that only the Leptotrichia and Eggerthella genera were associated with all four Amsel criteria [60].…”

Diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis among Symptomatic Egyptian Women: Value of Assessing Bacterial Sialidase Activity

“…isolated. Ling et al, (2013) indicated that vaginal pathogenic bacteria such as Gardenerella vaginalis, Prevotella spp., Atopium vaginae, Eggerthella and Leptotrichia/Sneathia are highly predictable for BV, with excellent diagnostic accuracy. Unfortunately, in the present work, we failed to isolated Gardenerella vaginalis by the routine culture methods followed in our laboratories.…”