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The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?

Besides bacteria, fungi, protists and archaea, the vaginal ecosystem also contains a range of prokaryote- and eukaryote-infecting viruses, which are collectively referred to as the “virome”. Despite its well-described role in the gut and other environmental niches, the vaginal virome remains underst...

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Autores principales: Happel, Anna-Ursula, Varsani, Arvind, Balle, Christina, Passmore, Jo-Ann, Jaspan, Heather
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7472209/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751611
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12080832
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author Happel, Anna-Ursula
Varsani, Arvind
Balle, Christina
Passmore, Jo-Ann
Jaspan, Heather
author_facet Happel, Anna-Ursula
Varsani, Arvind
Balle, Christina
Passmore, Jo-Ann
Jaspan, Heather
author_sort Happel, Anna-Ursula
collection PubMed
description Besides bacteria, fungi, protists and archaea, the vaginal ecosystem also contains a range of prokaryote- and eukaryote-infecting viruses, which are collectively referred to as the “virome”. Despite its well-described role in the gut and other environmental niches, the vaginal virome remains understudied. With a focus on sexual and reproductive health, we summarize the currently known components of the vaginal virome, its relationship with other constituents of the vaginal microbiota and its association with adverse health outcomes. While a range of eukaryote-infecting viruses has been described to be present in the female genital tract (FGT), few prokaryote-infecting viruses have been described. Literature suggests that various vaginal viruses interact with vaginal bacterial microbiota and host immunity and that any imbalance thereof may contribute to the risk of adverse reproductive health outcomes, including infertility and adverse birth outcomes. Current limitations of vaginal virome research include experimental and analytical constraints. Considering the vaginal virome may represent the missing link in our understanding of the relationship between FGT bacteria, mucosal immunity, and adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, future studies evaluating the vaginal microbiome and its population dynamics holistically will be important for understanding the role of the vaginal virome in balancing health and disease.
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spelling pubmed-74722092020-09-04 The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes? Happel, Anna-Ursula Varsani, Arvind Balle, Christina Passmore, Jo-Ann Jaspan, Heather Viruses Review Besides bacteria, fungi, protists and archaea, the vaginal ecosystem also contains a range of prokaryote- and eukaryote-infecting viruses, which are collectively referred to as the “virome”. Despite its well-described role in the gut and other environmental niches, the vaginal virome remains understudied. With a focus on sexual and reproductive health, we summarize the currently known components of the vaginal virome, its relationship with other constituents of the vaginal microbiota and its association with adverse health outcomes. While a range of eukaryote-infecting viruses has been described to be present in the female genital tract (FGT), few prokaryote-infecting viruses have been described. Literature suggests that various vaginal viruses interact with vaginal bacterial microbiota and host immunity and that any imbalance thereof may contribute to the risk of adverse reproductive health outcomes, including infertility and adverse birth outcomes. Current limitations of vaginal virome research include experimental and analytical constraints. Considering the vaginal virome may represent the missing link in our understanding of the relationship between FGT bacteria, mucosal immunity, and adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, future studies evaluating the vaginal microbiome and its population dynamics holistically will be important for understanding the role of the vaginal virome in balancing health and disease. MDPI 2020-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7472209/ /pubmed/32751611 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12080832 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Happel, Anna-Ursula
Varsani, Arvind
Balle, Christina
Passmore, Jo-Ann
Jaspan, Heather
The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title_full The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title_fullStr The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title_full_unstemmed The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title_short The Vaginal Virome—Balancing Female Genital Tract Bacteriome, Mucosal Immunity, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes?
title_sort vaginal virome—balancing female genital tract bacteriome, mucosal immunity, and sexual and reproductive health outcomes?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7472209/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751611
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12080832
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