What's Sex Got to Do With It? Understanding Potential Confounding and Exposure Misclassification in Mechanistic Sexually Transmitted Infection Research

Jennifer Deese; Meng Wang; Dana Lapple; Julie A E Nelson; Bethany Kuerten; Markus J Steiner; Pai Lien Chen; Marcia M Hobbs

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa705

What's Sex Got to Do With It? Understanding Potential Confounding and Exposure Misclassification in Mechanistic Sexually Transmitted Infection Research

J Infect Dis. 2021 Jul 2;224(1):137-140. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa705.

Authors

Jennifer Deese¹, Meng Wang², Dana Lapple³, Julie A E Nelson⁴, Bethany Kuerten⁵, Markus J Steiner⁶, Pai Lien Chen⁷, Marcia M Hobbs³

Affiliations

¹ Global Public Health Impact Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
² Target PharmaSolutions, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Upstream USA, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
⁶ Product Development and Introduction, FHI 360, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁷ Biostatistics, FHI 360, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Abstract

We conducted a prospective study of 13 heterosexual couples to understand the impact of recent condomless vaginal sex on vaginal immune marker measurement and potential exposure misclassification due to the presence of semen. All immune markers were detectable in semen and concentrations of vaginal immune markers varied by sex recency.

Keywords: HIV; cytokine; prostate-specific antigen; sexually transmitted infection.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Biomarkers
Female
Humans
Immunity, Innate
Male
Prospective Studies
Semen / immunology
Sexually Transmitted Diseases / etiology
Sexually Transmitted Diseases / immunology*
Vagina / immunology

Substances

Biomarkers

Grants and funding

P30 AI050410/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States