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Vaginal Lactobacillus fatty acid response mechanisms reveal a novel strategy for bacterial vaginosis treatment.
- Source :
-
BioRxiv : the preprint server for biology [bioRxiv] 2023 Dec 30. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Dec 30. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Bacterial vaginosis (BV), a common syndrome characterized by Lactobacillus -deficient vaginal microbiota, is associated with adverse health outcomes. BV often recurs after standard antibiotic therapy in part because antibiotics promote microbiota dominance by Lactobacillus iners instead of Lactobacillus crispatus , which has more beneficial health associations. Strategies to promote L. crispatus and inhibit L. iners are thus needed. We show that oleic acid (OA) and similar long-chain fatty acids simultaneously inhibit L. iners and enhance L. crispatus growth. These phenotypes require OA-inducible genes conserved in L. crispatus and related species, including an oleate hydratase ( ohyA ) and putative fatty acid efflux pump ( farE ). FarE mediates OA resistance, while OhyA is robustly active in the human vaginal microbiota and sequesters OA in a derivative form that only ohyA -harboring organisms can exploit. Finally, OA promotes L. crispatus dominance more effectively than antibiotics in an in vitro model of BV, suggesting a novel approach for treatment.<br />Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interests M.Z., S.M.B., P.C.B., and D.S.K. are co-inventors on a patent related to this work. P.C.B is a co-inventor on patent applications concerning droplet array technologies and serves as a consultant and equity holder of companies in the microfluidics and life sciences industries, including 10x Genomics, GALT/Isolation Bio, Celsius Therapeutics, Next Gen Diagnostics, Cache DNA, Concerto Biosciences, Amber Bio, Stately, Ramona Optics, and Bifrost Biosystems. D.S.K. serves as equity holder of Day Zero Diagnostics.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2692-8205
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- BioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
- Accession number :
- 38234804
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.30.573720