Bacterial vaginosis: Culture- and PCR-based characterizations of a complex polymicrobial disease’s pathobiology

Abstract

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an enigmatic polymicrobial disease, and its evolution and pathobiology will not be solved by traditional culture-based methods. Characterization of the vaginal microbiota by polymerase chain reaction-based methods holds great promise. Molecular studies have identified species not detected by culture, but they also have missed some species identified by culture. These studies allow classification of both normal and BV patients based on distinct microbiologic profiles, which may prove important in accessing risk of BV, response to treatment, and risk of complications. More studies using new generations of primers and standardized methods are needed, and data must be analyzed after grouping patients according to microbiologic profiles.

Novel PCR-Based Methods Enhance Characterization of Vaginal Microbiota in a Bacterial Vaginosis Patient before and after Treatment

“…Decades of microbiological and molecular analyses have not established an etiology (4). These difficulties result in part from the complex microbiota of the vagina, composed of hundreds of bacterial species, with titers ranging from billions to fewer than 100 cells, many of which are fastidious, unculturable, or difficult to identify (5)(6)(7).…”

“…NGS has now been applied in at least 5 large-scale studies of bacterial populations in the vaginal mucosa of healthy women and asymptomatic and symptomatic BV patients (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Limitations of this approach include the possibilities that broad-spectrum primers may miss whole phyla or fail to amplify some targets for unknown reasons (6,7) and that rare species may be missed entirely in the presence of an overwhelmingly dominant species.…”

Bacterial infections of the equine genital tract

“…A detailed analysis of the equine genital microbiome may enhance our understanding of the normal composition of the genital flora as well as dysbiotic shifts during the pathogenesis of bacterial endometritis. However, applying molecular technical advancements remains an issue to be valued carefully in the light of today's limitations of cultureindependent techniques (Forney et al 2004, Kalra et al 2007). …”

Bacterial Vaginosis; Comparison Between Metronidazole Vaginal Gel and Clindamycin Vaginal Cream for Treatment of Bacterial Vaginosis

“…1 Additionally it is further linked with reasonable disease burden of community problem in terms of infectious complication in sexually active women. 2 Bacterial vaginosis is associated with increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases.…”