Changes in vaginal microbiota following antimicrobial and probiotic therapy

Jean M Macklaim; Jose C Clemente; Rob Knight; Gregory B Gloor; Gregor Reid

doi:10.3402/mehd.v26.27799

Changes in vaginal microbiota following antimicrobial and probiotic therapy

Microb Ecol Health Dis. 2015 Aug 14:26:27799. doi: 10.3402/mehd.v26.27799. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Jean M Macklaim^{1

2}, Jose C Clemente^{3

4}, Rob Knight^{5

6

7}, Gregory B Gloor^{1

2}, Gregor Reid^{1

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Canadian Research & Development Centre for Microbiome and Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Biochemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Department of Surgery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; gregor@uwo.ca.

Abstract

Background: The composition of the vaginal microbiota is known to be important for health. When infections occur, antimicrobial therapy is often poorly efficacious.

Objective and design: We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize changes in the bacterial microbiota following oral antimicrobial and probiotic interventions.

Results: While the bacterial vaginal profiles of women with vulvovaginal candidiasis were dominated by lactobacilli as in healthy women, and unchanged by therapy, Gardnerella vaginalis, Prevotella, Atopobium, Sneathia, and Megasphaera dominated the vagina of women with bacterial vaginosis (BV), and treatment with tinidazole plus Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14+L. rhamnosus GR-1 resulted in an increased relative abundance of indigenous L. iners or L. crispatus.

Conclusions: The ability to restore homeostasis provides a rationale for conjoint use of probiotics with antibiotic treatment of BV.

Keywords: Lactobacillus; bacterial vaginosis; probiotics; vulvovaginal candidiasis.