Cervicovaginal mucus barrier properties during pregnancy are impacted by the vaginal microbiome.

Mucus in the female reproductive tract acts as a barrier that traps and eliminates pathogens and foreign particles via steric and adhesive interactions. During pregnancy, mucus protects the uterine environment from ascension of pathogens and bacteria from the vagina into the uterus, a potential contributor to intrauterine inflammation and preterm birth. As recent work has demonstrated the benefit of vaginal drug delivery in treating women's health indications, we sought to define the barrier properties of human cervicovaginal mucus (CVM) during pregnancy to inform the design of vaginally delivered therapeutics during pregnancy. CVM samples were self-collected by pregnant participants over the course of pregnancy, and barrier properties were quantified using multiple particle tracking. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed to analyze the composition of the vaginal microbiome. Participant demographics differed between term delivery and preterm delivery cohorts, with Black or African American participants being significantly more likely to delivery prematurely. We observed that vaginal microbiota is most predictive of CVM barrier properties and of timing of parturition. Lactobacillus crispatus dominated CVM samples showed increased barrier properties compared to polymicrobial CVM samples. This work informs our understanding of how infections occur during pregnancy, and directs the engineering of targeted drug treatments for indications during pregnancy.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 Zierden, DeLong, Zulfiqar, Ortiz, Laney, Bensouda, Hernández, Hoang, Lai, Hanes, Burke and Ensign.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The mucus penetrating particle technology is licensed and in clinical development for ocular indications by Kala Pharmaceuticals. JH is a founder of Kala Pharmaceuticals and serves as a consultant. JH, LE, and Johns Hopkins own company stock. Under a licensing agreement between Kala Pharmaceuticals and the Johns Hopkins University, LE, JH, and the University are entitled to royalty distributions related to the technology. LE is a co-founder and chair of the scientific advisory board of Freya Biosciences. These arrangements have been reviewed and approved by the Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.