Ecological dynamics of the vaginal microbiome in relation to health and disease

Greenbaum, Shirley; Greenbaum, Gili; Moran-Gilad, Jacob; Weintraub, Adi Y.

doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2018.11.1089

Cited by 171 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Both GynCa and anticancer therapies often have a major impact on vaginal pH and/or Lactobacillus colonization, and therefore, the health of the vaginal ecosystem 12,13 . Conversely, changes in the VMs may contribute to carcinogenesis, recurrence rates, or treatment‐related toxicities 2 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of vaginal microbiota in gynecologic cancer patients pre‐ and post‐radiation therapy and healthy women

et al. 2020

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Background: While the importance of commensal microbes in vaginal health is well appreciated, little is known about the effects of gynecological cancer (GynCa) and radiation therapy (RT) on the vaginal microbiome (VM) of postmenopausal women. Methods: We studied women with GynCa, pre-(N = 65) and post-RT (N = 25) and a group of healthy controls (N = 67) by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene from vaginal swabs and compared the diversity and composition of VMs between the three groups accounting for potential confounding factors in multivariate analysis of variance. Results: Comparisons of cancer vs healthy groups revealed that Lactobacillus andBifidobacterium have significantly higher relative abundance in the healthy group, while the cancer group was enriched in 16 phylogroups associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV) and inflammation, including Sneathia, Prevotella, Peptoniphilus, Fusobacterium, Anaerococcus, Dialister, Moryella, and Peptostreptococcus. In our sample, RT affected the α-diversity and correlated with higher abundance of typically rare VM species, including several members of the Lacnospiraceae family, a taxon previously linked to vaginal dysbiosis. In addition to cancer and treatment modalities, age and vaginal pH were identified as significant parameters that structure the VM. Conclusions: This is among the first reports identifying VM changes among postmenopausal women with cancer. RT alone seems to affect several phylogroups (12 bacterial genera), while gynecological cancer and its treatment modalities are associated with even greater significant shifts in the vaginal microbiota including the enrichment of opportunistic bacterial pathogens, which warrants further attention. K E Y W O R D S16S rRNA gene, gynecologic cancer, postmenopausal women, radiation therapy, vaginal microbiota | 3715 TSEMENTZI ET al.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of vaginal microbiota in gynecologic cancer patients pre‐ and post‐radiation therapy and healthy women

et al. 2020

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“…Populations of bacterial species in vaginal communities comprises of multiple strains. Previous studies of the vaginal microbiome have largely treated these species as singular genotypes [55, 56], although some more recent studies have examined intraspecies diversity in these communities [57, 58]. Intraspecies diversity is important because it is likely to influence many properties of the communities including their temporal stability and resilience, as well as how they relate to host health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

VIRGO, a comprehensive non-redundant gene catalog, reveals extensive within community intraspecies diversity in the human vagina

Crabtree

Holm

et al. 2019

Preprint

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12 Background 13 Analysis of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data is complicated and typically 14 requires extensive computational resources. Leveraging a curated reference database 15 of genes encoded by members of the target microbiome can make these analyses more 16 tractable. Unfortunately, there is no such reference database available for the vaginal 17 microbiome. 18 Results 19 In this study, we assembled a comprehensive human vaginal non-redundant gene 20 catalog (VIRGO) from 264 vaginal metagenomes and 416 genomes of urogenital 21 bacterial isolates. VIRGO includes 0.95 million non-redundant genes compiled from a 22 3 Keywords 39 vaginal microbiome, metagenome and metatranscriptome reference database, non-40 redundant gene catalog, intraspecies diversity, gene-centric design, protein family 41 catalog, multi-omics data integration 42 4 Background 43The microbial communities that inhabit the human body play critical roles in the 44 maintenance of health, and dysfunction of these communities is often associated with 45 disease [1]. Taxonomic profiling of the human microbiome via 16S rRNA gene amplicon 46 sequencing has provided critical insight into the potential role of the microbiota in a wide 47 array of common diseases [2][3][4]. Yet these data routinely fall short of describing the 48 etiology of such microbiome-associated diseases, such as bacterial vaginosis [5, 6], 49Crohn's disease [7, 8] or psoriasis [9], among others. This is perhaps because while 50 16S rRNA gene sequencing can provide species-level taxonomic profiles of a microbial 51 community, it does not describe the genes or metabolic functions that are encoded in 52 the constituents' genomes. This is an important distinction because strains of a bacterial 53 species have been documented to exhibit substantial diversity in gene content [10], 54 such that their genomes harbor sets of accessory genes whose presence is variable 55 [11, 12]. It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to infer the complete function of a 56 microbial species in a specific environment using only the sequence of their 16S rRNA 57 gene. As a consequence, to investigate the role of the human microbiome in health and 58 diseases, particular emphasis should be placed on describing the gene content and 59 gene expression of these microbial communities. 60 61 Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiling are emerging approaches aimed at 62 characterizing the gene content and expression of microbial communities. Results have 63 led to increased appreciation for the important role microbial communities play in human 64 health and diseases [13, 14]. Despite the rapid development and increased throughput 65 of sequencing technologies, current knowledge of the genetic and functional diversity of 66 microbial community is still highly limited. This is due, at least in part, to a lack of 67 resources necessary for the analysis of these massive short read datasets [13, 15]. De 68 novo assembly of metagenomic or metatranscriptomic datasets typically requires rather 69 subst...

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“…The present study was limited due to its cross-sectional elements. The vaginal microbiome is ecologically dynamic, (Greenbaum et al 2018) therefore going forward, the best approach is to explore the different structures of the vaginal microbiome, between these two population, over at least one menstruation cycle. (Uchihashi et al 2015) Meanwhile, our cross-sectional study could not explain the causality between STIs and vaginal microbiome changes, and whether commercial sex behaviors led STIs first or impact vaginal microbiome first.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "Characteristics of the vaginal microbiome in cross-border female sex workers in China: a case-control study (v0.2)"

2019

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Background : The female sex workers (FSWs) are key groups in the transmission of sexual transmitted infections (STI) and vaginal microbiome variations play an important role for it. We aimed to explore the characteristics of vaginal microbiome among FSWs. Materials and Methods: 24 cross-border female sex workers were randomly selected from a crosssectional survey for female sex workers in southwest China. 37 female non-sex workers were randomly selected from the gynecology clinic and health examination center. Vaginal swabs were collected, bacterial DNA extracted and 16S rRNA genes were sequenced. Differences in the vaginal microbiome between both groups were compared using bioinformatics analysis. Results: One DNA sample was excluded due to unqualified concentration, therefore 60 samples were sequenced. Female sex workers had significantly different vaginal microbiota β diversity, but undifferentiated α diversity when compared with non-sex workers. The average relative abundance of Sneathia, Shigella, Neisseria, Chlamydia, Prevotella, Enterococcus and Ureaplasma among female sex workers was higher than female non-sex workers, and relative abundance of Atopobium in female sex workers was lower than female non-sex workers. The Lactobacillus genus was the major genus in both groups. At the species level, Lactobacllus crispatus, Lactobacllus gasseri and Lactobacllus jensenii, in female sex workers, were lower when compared to female non-sex workers. Conclusion: There were distinct differences in vaginal bacteria variety between female sex workers and female non-sex workers. Some disease-related genus were also more abundant in female sex workers. Based on these observations, further research is required to identify microbiome communities related to high STI risks and other diseases in these cohorts.

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Ecological dynamics of the vaginal microbiome in relation to health and disease

Cited by 171 publications

References 90 publications

Comparison of vaginal microbiota in gynecologic cancer patients pre‐ and post‐radiation therapy and healthy women

Comparison of vaginal microbiota in gynecologic cancer patients pre‐ and post‐radiation therapy and healthy women

VIRGO, a comprehensive non-redundant gene catalog, reveals extensive within community intraspecies diversity in the human vagina

Peer Review #2 of "Characteristics of the vaginal microbiome in cross-border female sex workers in China: a case-control study (v0.2)"

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