A fruitful alliance: the synergy between and in bacterial vaginosis-associated biofilm.
Liselotte Hardy, Vicky Jespers, Said Abdellati, Irith De Baetselier, Lambert Mwambarangwe, Viateur Musengamana, Janneke van de Wijgert, Mario Vaneechoutte, Tania Crucitti
Author Information
Liselotte Hardy: HIV and Sexual Health Group, Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Vicky Jespers: HIV and Sexual Health Group, Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Said Abdellati: STI Reference Laboratory, Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Irith De Baetselier: STI Reference Laboratory, Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. ORCID
OBJECTIVES: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is characterised by a change in the microbial composition of the vagina. The BV-associated organisms outnumber the health-associated species and form a polymicrobial biofilm on the vaginal epithelium, possibly explaining the difficulties with antibiotic treatment. A better understanding of vaginal biofilm with emphasis on and may contribute to a better diagnosis and treatment of BV. METHODS: To this purpose, we evaluated the association between the presence of both bacteria by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and BV by Nugent scoring in 463 vaginal slides of 120 participants participating in a clinical trial in Rwanda. RESULTS: A bacterial biofilm was detected in half of the samples using a universal bacterial probe. The biofilm contained in 54.1% and in 82.0% of the samples. was accompanied by in 99.5% of samples. The odds of having a Nugent score above 4 were increased for samples with dispersed and/or present (OR 4.5; CI 2 to 10.3). The probability of having a high Nugent score was even higher when a combination of adherent and dispersed was visualised (OR 75.6; CI 13.3 to 429.5) and highest when both bacteria were part of the biofilm (OR 119; CI 39.9 to 360.8). CONCLUSIONS: Our study, although not comprehensive at studying the polymicrobial biofilm in BV, provided a strong indication towards the importance of and the symbiosis of and in this biofilm. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT01796613.
