scholarly journals Large-scale characterisation of the pregnancy vaginal microbiome and sialidase activity in a low-risk Chinese population

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherrianne Ng ◽  
Muxuan Chen ◽  
Samit Kundu ◽  
Xuefei Wang ◽  
Zuyi Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
Childhood Mortality ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Sialidase Activity ◽  
Host Interactions ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Asian Populations

AbstractVaginal microbiota-host interactions are linked to preterm birth (PTB), which continues to be the primary cause of global childhood mortality. Due to population size, the majority of PTB occurs in Asia, yet there have been few studies of the pregnancy vaginal microbiota in Asian populations. Here, we characterized the vaginal microbiome of 2689 pregnant Chinese women using metataxonomics and in a subset (n = 819), the relationship between vaginal microbiota composition, sialidase activity and leukocyte presence and pregnancy outcomes. Vaginal microbiota were most frequently dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus or L. iners, with the latter associated with vaginal leukocyte presence. Women with high sialidase activity were enriched for bacterial vaginosis-associated genera including Gardnerella, Atopobium and Prevotella. Vaginal microbiota composition, high sialidase activity and/or leukocyte presence was not associated with PTB risk suggesting underlying differences in the vaginal microbiota and/or host immune responses of Chinese women, possibly accounting for low PTB rates in this population.

scholarly journals Large-scale characterisation of the pregnancy vaginal microbiome and sialidase activity in a low-risk Chinese population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherrianne Ng ◽  
Muxuan Chen ◽  
Samit Kundu ◽  
Xuefei Wang ◽  
Zu-Yi Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
Childhood Mortality ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Sialidase Activity ◽  
Host Interactions ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
The Relationship

Vaginal microbiota-host interactions are linked to preterm birth (PTB), which continues to be the primary cause of global childhood mortality. Despite the majority of PTB occuring in Asia, studies of the pregnancy vaginal microbiota are largely limited to Northern American and European populations. Here, we characterised the vaginal microbiome of 2689 pregnant Chinese women using metataxonomics and in a subset (n=823), the relationship between vaginal microbiota composition, sialidase activity and leukocyte presence and pregnancy outcomes. Vaginal microbiota were most frequently dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus or L. iners, with the latter associated with vaginal leukocyte presence. Women with high sialidase activity were enriched for bacterial vaginosis-associated genera including Gardnerella, Atopobium and Prevotella. Vaginal microbiota composition, high sialidase activity and/or leukocyte presence was not associated with PTB risk suggesting underlying differences in the vaginal microbiota and/or host immune responses of Chinese women, possibly accounting for low PTB rates in this population.

scholarly journals Metagenomics Analysis of Race and Age influence on the Vaginal Microbiome in Pregnant and Non-pregnant Healthy Women

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Golestani ◽  
Samira Ghaedmohammadi ◽  
Najmeh Mozdoori
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Microbial Species ◽  
Healthy Women

Abstract Various human body parts are host to many microbial species and have a mutualistic relationship with them. The presence of these microbial species in reproductive tubes plays an essential protective role against the proliferation of harmful organisms and is an important factor in reproductive health. The vaginal microbiota during pregnancy plays a vital role in the health of the mother and the infant. Microbiota imbalance during pregnancy is associated with many complications. As a result, the detection of vaginal microbiota during pregnancy can reduce the risk of these problems. High-throughput culture-independent technologies allow the study of vaginal microbiome on a large scale. This study aimed to compare the vaginal microbiota between pregnant and non-pregnant healthy women of different age or race using the meta-analysis method. The results from 7 articles having 16S rRNA gene sequences, were extracted and analyzed by CLC. Data from 898 pregnant and 702 non-pregnant women showed that the Bacilli, Clostridia, Actinobacteria and Coriobacteria were the dominant classes in pregnancy. The vaginal microbiota in normal non-pregnancy is also predominated by Bacilli. Still, beta diversity maps demonstrated that non-pregnant vaginal microbiome is more variable than that in the pregnant state. This study reveals new insights into age and ethnic effects on the pregnant and non-pregnant vaginal microbiome and found that the microbiome of Chinese women was more distinct than the other races. It was also detected that the relative number of bacterial classes is dramatically lower in women above the age of 35 relative to younger ones.

scholarly journals Alterations in the Vaginal Microbiome by Maternal Stress Are Associated With Metabolic Reprogramming of the Offspring Gut and Brain

Endocrinology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 156 (9) ◽  
pp. 3265-3276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldin Jašarević ◽  
Christopher L. Howerton ◽  
Christopher D. Howard ◽  
Tracy L. Bale
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Stress ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
Developing Brain ◽  
Metabolic Reprogramming ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disease ◽  
Gut Colonization

The neonate is exposed to the maternal vaginal microbiota during parturition, providing the primary source for normal gut colonization, host immune maturation, and metabolism. These early interactions between the host and microbiota occur during a critical window of neurodevelopment, suggesting early life as an important period of cross talk between the developing gut and brain. Because perturbations in the prenatal environment such as maternal stress increase neurodevelopmental disease risk, disruptions to the vaginal ecosystem could be a contributing factor in significant and long-term consequences for the offspring. Therefore, to examine the hypothesis that changes in the vaginal microbiome are associated with effects on the offspring gut microbiota and on the developing brain, we used genomic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies to examine outcomes in our mouse model of early prenatal stress. Multivariate modeling identified broad proteomic changes to the maternal vaginal environment that influence offspring microbiota composition and metabolic processes essential for normal neurodevelopment. Maternal stress altered proteins related to vaginal immunity and abundance of Lactobacillus, the prominent taxa in the maternal vagina. Loss of maternal vaginal Lactobacillus resulted in decreased transmission of this bacterium to offspring. Further, altered microbiota composition in the neonate gut corresponded with changes in metabolite profiles involved in energy balance, and with region- and sex-specific disruptions of amino acid profiles in the developing brain. Taken together, these results identify the vaginal microbiota as a novel factor by which maternal stress may contribute to reprogramming of the developing brain that may predispose individuals to neurodevelopmental disorders.

scholarly journals The vaginal microbiome of sub-Saharan African women: revealing important gaps in the era of next-generation sequencing

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9684
Author(s):  
Nkechi Martina Odogwu ◽  
Oladapo O. Olayemi ◽  
Akinyinka O. Omigbodun
Keyword(s):  
Next Generation Sequencing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marker Gene ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
African Population ◽  
African Women ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Generation Sequencing

Accurate characterization of the vaginal microbiome remains a fundamental goal of the Human Microbiome project (HMP). For over a decade, this goal has been made possible deploying high-throughput next generation sequencing technologies (NGS), which indeed has revolutionized medical research and enabled large-scale genomic studies. The 16S rRNA marker-gene survey is the most commonly explored approach for vaginal microbial community studies. With this approach, prior studies have elucidated substantial variations in the vaginal microbiome of women from different ethnicities. This review provides a comprehensive account of studies that have deployed this approach to describe the vaginal microbiota of African women in health and disease. On the basis of published data, the few studies reported from the African population are mainly in non-pregnant post pubertal women and calls for more detailed studies in pregnant and postnatal cohorts. We provide insight on the use of more sophisticated cutting-edge technologies in characterizing the vaginal microbiome. These technologies offer high-resolution detection of vaginal microbiome variations and community functional capabilities, which can shed light into several discrepancies observed in the vaginal microbiota of African women in an African population versus women of African descent in the diaspora.

scholarly journals The Gut Microbiota of Healthy Aged Chinese Is Similar to That of the Healthy Young

mSphere ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaorui Bian ◽  
Gregory B. Gloor ◽  
Aihua Gong ◽  
Changsheng Jia ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Compositional Data ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Compositional Data Analysis ◽  
Surprising Result ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Cohorts

ABSTRACT We report the large-scale use of compositional data analysis to establish a baseline microbiota composition in an extremely healthy cohort of the Chinese population. This baseline will serve for comparison for future cohorts with chronic or acute disease. In addition to the expected difference in the microbiota of children and adults, we found that the microbiota of the elderly in this population was similar in almost all respects to that of healthy people in the same population who are scores of years younger. We speculate that this similarity is a consequence of an active healthy lifestyle and diet, although cause and effect cannot be ascribed in this (or any other) cross-sectional design. One surprising result was that the gut microbiota of persons in their 20s was distinct from those of other age cohorts, and this result was replicated, suggesting that it is a reproducible finding and distinct from those of other populations. The microbiota of the aged is variously described as being more or less diverse than that of younger cohorts, but the comparison groups used and the definitions of the aged population differ between experiments. The differences are often described by null hypothesis statistical tests, which are notoriously irreproducible when dealing with large multivariate samples. We collected and examined the gut microbiota of a cross-sectional cohort of more than 1,000 very healthy Chinese individuals who spanned ages from 3 to over 100 years. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing results used a compositional data analysis paradigm coupled with measures of effect size, where ordination, differential abundance, and correlation can be explored and analyzed in a unified and reproducible framework. Our analysis showed several surprising results compared to other cohorts. First, the overall microbiota composition of the healthy aged group was similar to that of people decades younger. Second, the major differences between groups in the gut microbiota profiles were found before age 20. Third, the gut microbiota differed little between individuals from the ages of 30 to >100. Fourth, the gut microbiota of males appeared to be more variable than that of females. Taken together, the present findings suggest that the microbiota of the healthy aged in this cross-sectional study differ little from that of the healthy young in the same population, although the minor variations that do exist depend upon the comparison cohort. IMPORTANCE We report the large-scale use of compositional data analysis to establish a baseline microbiota composition in an extremely healthy cohort of the Chinese population. This baseline will serve for comparison for future cohorts with chronic or acute disease. In addition to the expected difference in the microbiota of children and adults, we found that the microbiota of the elderly in this population was similar in almost all respects to that of healthy people in the same population who are scores of years younger. We speculate that this similarity is a consequence of an active healthy lifestyle and diet, although cause and effect cannot be ascribed in this (or any other) cross-sectional design. One surprising result was that the gut microbiota of persons in their 20s was distinct from those of other age cohorts, and this result was replicated, suggesting that it is a reproducible finding and distinct from those of other populations.

scholarly journals Slipped strand mispairing in the gene encoding sialidase NanH3 in Gardnerella spp

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakya P. Kurukulasuriya ◽  
Mo H. Patterson ◽  
Janet E. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Cell Wall ◽  
Biofilm Formation ◽  
Gene Sequence ◽  
Phase Variation ◽  
Cell Wall Proteins ◽  
Vaginal Microbiome ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Reading Frame ◽  
Sialidase Activity ◽  
Mucosal Surfaces

AbstractCell wall proteins with sialidase activity are involved in carbohydrate assimilation, adhesion to mucosal surfaces, and biofilm formation. Gardnerella spp. inhabit the human vaginal microbiome and encode up to three sialidase enzymes, two of which are suspected to be cell wall associated. Here we demonstrate that the gene encoding extracellular sialidase NanH3 is found almost exclusively in G. piotii and closely related Gardnerella genome sp. 3, and its presence correlates with sialidase positive phenotype in a collection of 112 Gardnerella isolates. The nanH3 gene sequence includes a homopolymeric repeat of cytosines that varies in length within cell populations, indicating that this gene is subject to slipped-strand mispairing, a mechanisms of phase variation in bacteria. Variation in the length of the homopolymer sequence results in encoding of either the full length sialidase protein or truncated peptides lacking the sialidase domain due to introduction of reading-frame shifts and premature stop codons. Phase variation in NanH3 may be involved in immune evasion or modulation of adhesion to host epithelial cells, and formation of biofilms characteristic of the vaginal dysbiosis known as bacterial vaginosis.

scholarly journals Efficient Flow Synthesis of Human Antimicrobial Peptides

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
John S. Albin ◽  
Bradley L. Pentelute
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Immune Responses ◽  
Antimicrobial Peptides ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Flow Chemistry ◽  
Flash Chromatography ◽  
Reverse Phase ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Therapeutic Development

Organisms from all kingdoms of life have evolved a vast array of peptidic natural products to defend against microbes. These are known collectively as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) or host defence peptides, reflecting their abilities not only to directly kill microbes, but also to modulate host immune responses. Despite decades of investigation, AMPs have yet to live up to their promise as lead therapeutics, a reality that reflects, in part, our incomplete understanding of these diverse agents in their various physiological contexts. Towards improving our understanding of AMP biology and the ways in which this can be best leveraged for therapeutic development, we are interested in large-scale comparisons of the antimicrobial and immunological activities of human AMPs, an undertaking that requires an efficient workflow for AMP synthesis and subsequent characterization. We describe here the application of flow chemistry and reverse-phase flash chromatography to the generation of 43AMPs, approaches that, when combined, significantly expedite synthesis and purification, potentially facilitating more systematic approaches to downstream testing and engineering.

scholarly journals System-Based Approaches to Delineate the Antiviral Innate Immune Landscape

Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1196
Author(s):  
Karsten Krey ◽  
Aleksandra W. Babnis ◽  
Andreas Pichlmair
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Innate Immune ◽  
Host Interactions ◽  
Interferon Stimulated Genes ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Virus Inhibition ◽  
Cellular Factors ◽  
Functional Factors ◽  
Infected Cells ◽  
Screening Approaches

Viruses pose substantial challenges for society, economy, healthcare systems, and research. Their distinctive pathologies are based on specific interactions with cellular factors. In order to develop new antiviral treatments, it is of central importance to understand how viruses interact with their host and how infected cells react to the virus on a molecular level. Invading viruses are commonly sensed by components of the innate immune system, which is composed of a highly effective yet complex network of proteins that, in most cases, mediate efficient virus inhibition. Central to this process is the activity of interferons and other cytokines that coordinate the antiviral response. So far, numerous methods have been used to identify how viruses interact with cellular processes and revealed that the innate immune response is highly complex and involves interferon-stimulated genes and their binding partners as functional factors. Novel approaches and careful experimental design, combined with large-scale, high-throughput methods and cutting-edge analysis pipelines, have to be utilized to delineate the antiviral innate immune landscape at a global level. In this review, we describe different currently used screening approaches, how they contributed to our knowledge on virus–host interactions, and essential considerations that have to be taken into account when planning such experiments.

Vaginal microbiota composition and association with prevalent Chlamydia trachomatis infection: a cross-sectional study of young women attending a STI clinic in France

2018 ◽  
Vol 94 (8) ◽  
pp. 616-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne Tamarelle ◽  
Bertille de Barbeyrac ◽  
Isabelle Le Hen ◽  
Anne Thiébaut ◽  
Cécile Bébéar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chlamydia Trachomatis ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Vaginal Microbiota ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional

ObjectivesNew molecular techniques have allowed describing groups of bacterial communities in the vagina (community state types (CST)) that could play an important role in Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection. Our aim was to describe the distribution of CST in a population of young women in France.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out in June 2015 among anonymous young women attending a STI clinic in Bordeaux, France. Participants provided a vaginal sample for CT screening and sociodemographic data. CT was diagnosed using the Aptima-combo 2 transcription-mediated-amplification assay. Vaginal microbiota composition was characterised using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.ResultsMicrobiota composition and CT status were available for 132 women. CST dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus (CST-I), L. iners (CST-III) and a diversity of anaerobes (CST-IV) represented 37.1%, 38.6% and 22.0% of the sample, respectively. Twenty-one out of 132 women were CT positive. Proportions of CT-positive women were higher for samples belonging to CST-III (21.6%) and CST-IV (17.2%) than to CST-I (8.2%).ConclusionsFive CST were found in 132 young women from a STI clinic in France. These CSTs were not significantly associated with CT but higher proportions of CT-positive women were found in CST-III and CST-IV, consistent with a previous study in the Netherlands. Though our study lacked statistical power and was cross-sectional, it is a necessary first step to understand the structure of the vaginal microbiota in French women with or without infection before performing in-depth longitudinal studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document