VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University the first year of a planned, four-year $11.5 million project to study how microorganisms found in the vagina influence health and disease in women.

Humans are home to millions of normally harmless microbes. The vagina, like many other body sites, is colonized by complex communities of protective bacteria and other microorganisms. It is generally accepted that these communities of microbes – commonly called microbiomes – profoundly impact health via effects on the local microenvironment.

Unhealthy and pathological conditions such as bacterial vaginosis, sexually transmitted disease, viral infections such as HPV or even HIV-1, are known to impact the vaginal microbiome. Normal events such as pregnancy are also known to change the microbiome.

For example, microflora associated with bacterial vaginosis is believed to contribute to the risk of miscarriage in the second trimester or preterm birth. And alterations that occur in pregnancy or menopause can change the make-up of normal vaginal microflora, which may increase the risk for infection, disease or transmission of a virus, such as HIV-1.

Changes in the vaginal microflora are thought to have an effect on disease progression and severity and may impact treatment outcomes. Despite its perceived importance to women’s health and disease, the microbiome of the vagina in pathological conditions has neither been characterized nor quantified.

Recently, new strategies, referred to as “metagenomics,” which apply so-called “next generation DNA sequencing technologies,” have been developed. These technologies permit rapid characterization and quantification of these complex microbial communities. Based on these new technologies, the NIH has launched the Human Microbiome Project to elucidate the relationship between the microbiomes and the state of health of the individual.

The four-year grant will bring together researchers from across VCU’s campuses from multiple disciplines to determine the role of genetics in the composition of vaginal microorganisms, changes in the vaginal microbiome associated with disease, and changes associated with common physiological states such as pregnancy or menopause, as well as those that occur in chronic states such as diabetes.

The team will examine differences in microbiome composition in different ethnic and racial groups and compare the vaginal microbial populations of twins in the Mid Atlantic Twin Registry.

The study at VCU is one of several projects through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and is part of the Human Microbiome Project initiative taking place at institutions across the country. In addition to the vaginal microbiome being studied at VCU, other institutions will be studying and collecting data on the gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, naso-pharyngeal tract and skin.

Researchers will pool the data collected from their investigations into a central database, where specialized analysis can take place. The purpose of the Human Microbiome Project is to advance the rate of discovery and translate the findings for use in new strategies to prevent, diagnose or treat disease, and get them to health care providers and patient bedsides. Other sequencing center sites include Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine, J. Craig Venter Institute and the Broad Institute.

At VCU, there are five teams of researchers from women’s health, microbial physiology, twin research, genetic sequencing/analysis, and data analysis. The study will involve VCU’s advanced ‘next generation sequencing’ capabilities – powerful technologies used to sequence genomes of microorganisms.

“There is a lot we still do not know about the human microbiome. Studying microbial populations of the vagina will allow us to better understand women’s health issues – particularly those related to the urogenital tract – and lead to important therapies or interventions to keep women healthy,” said Gregory Buck, Ph.D., director of the VCU Center for the Study of Biological Complexity and professor of microbiology and immunology in the VCU School of Medicine.

Co-principal investigators on the grant are Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine; Cynthia Cornelissen, Ph.D., from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Lindon Eaves, Ph.D., from the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics; and Mark Reimers, Ph.D., from the Department of Biostatistics.