Profiling the vaginal microbiome in HIV-positive women

Disruptions or imbalances of the vaginal microbiome can lead to negative reproductive health consequences for women, including an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and preterm birth. HIV-positive women may be particularly vulnerable to microbiome disruptions due to the immune dysfunction intrinsic to this disease. The objective of this study was to explore the vaginal microbiome in HIV-positive reproductive-aged women utilizing cpn60 metagenomic profiling and to correlate vaginal bacterial profiles with demographic/clinical variables. 54 HIV-positive women were recruited from the Oak Tree Clinic in Vancouver, BC. Demographic/clinical information was collected and vaginal gram-stains were assessed by Nugent’s scoring. Total DNA was extracted from vaginal swabs and PCR amplified using cpn60-specific universal primers. Cpn60-sequence libraries were generated with 454-GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing. 64 unique bacterial phylotypes were classified based on sequence similarity to known bacterial organisms and 10 common vaginal community clusters were generated. Fisher’s exact test and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were utilized to conduct statistical analyses. The mean age of enrolled women was 36.6 years (range=22.3–48.8). The mean CD4 count for these women was 484 cells/mm³ (range=90-930 cells/mm³) while the mean viral load was 13,144 copies/mL (range=40 copies/mL correlated with Atopobium vaginae, Gardnerella vaginalis D, Prevotella amnii, and 4 other potentially novel bacterial species (P<0.03 for all). CD4 counts <350 cells/mm³ significantly correlated with Gardnerella vaginalis B and Lactobacillus iners (p<0.05 for all). Cpn60-based sequence data demonstrated substantial variation in the vaginal microbiome among HIV-positive women, with species-specific differences dependent on vaginal discharge status, immune status and uncontrolled HIV replication.Medicine, Faculty ofObstetrics and Gynaecology, Department ofGraduat

Different and diverse anaerobic microbiota were seen in women living with HIV with unsuppressed HIV viral load and in women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis : a cohort study

Objective: To compare the vaginal microbiota of women living with HIV (WLWH) to the vaginal microbiota of women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV) and healthy women without HIV to determine if there are differences in the vaginal microbiome, what factors influence these differences, and to characterize HIV clinical parameters including viral load and CD4 count in relation to the vaginal microbiome.Medicine, Faculty ofNon UBCObstetrics and Gynaecology, Department ofReviewedFacult