Personalized reproductive medicine for women may now be possible with the discovery that the balance of vaginal microbes vary greatly between healthy women.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine‘s Institute for Genome Sciences hope further study will allow doctors to tailor each woman’s treatment and health maintenance to her individual microbial make-up.
Scientists were surprised to find that some women can be healthy while still harboring communities of microbes said professor of microbiology and immunology Jacques Ravel.
“Even microbes that were previously believed to be detrimental to a woman’s health seem to be part of a normal ecosystem in some women” he said. However further research is needed to establish the function of these microbes and the communities
“Some of the seemingly beneficial microbial communities seem to be associated with a higher pH – a measure of acidity – which is usually considered to be unhealthy.”
Researchers used genomics-based technologies to examine the vaginal microbes in 400 equally representing black, Hispanic, Asian and white women in the first in-depth, large-scale molecular characterization of vaginal microbial communities.
The a collaborative study between the Institute for Genome Sciences and researchers at the University of Idaho was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers found five main groups of microbial communities, and that the proportion of women in each community varied by ethnicity. Non optimal protection microbial proportions were more common among Hispanic and black women.
“The data highlight potential ethnic disparities and a need for more personalized medicine,” says Dr. Ravel.
The goal of that study is to develop a better understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms behind these differences.
The human microbiome refers to all of the microbes that live on and in the human body. Scientists believe these tiny organisms interact closely with the human genome and play a critical role in human health and disease.
In the vagina, these communities of microbes are critical in maintaining and promoting a woman’s health and in protecting against disease. This is primarily achieved by producing lactic acid causing an acid environment hostile to some harmful microbes.
“We’ve found we can actually group women by the type of microbes they have in the vagina,” says Dr. Ravel. “We hope this is leading to personalized medicine. The study shows that doctors should not assume every woman is the same. “
“We may not need to personalize reproductive medicine down to the individual woman, but by which microbial group they belong to” he said. This information may inform how doctors treat vaginal conditions.
“ Understanding these microbial communities could also help us determine which women might be at higher risk for infections” he said.
About 25 to 30 percent of women have yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, a bacterial infection of the vagina, causing discomfort and possibly serious health effects. It has been associated with an increased risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections and even pre-term delivery during pregnancy.
“If we could identify women as being at a high risk for developing bacterial vaginosis, we could develop preventive methods to lower the risk of infection,” says Dr. Ravel.
“Groundbreaking basic science discoveries like this are paving the way for personalized medicine, a new field we hope will allow us to tailor preventive techniques and therapeutics to each patient’s needs,” says acting president of the University of Maryland Albert Reece.
“I am confident that our top-tier scientists at the Institute for Genome Sciences will continue to play a critical role in advancing this new field of medicine in order to improve human health.”
