More than half of women globally experience bacterial vaginosis (BV)—an imbalance of naturally occurring microbes in the female genital tract—at least once in their life. The condition can cause painful symptoms and vaginal discharge, and although treatable with antibiotics, it frequently comes back within a short time. If left untreated, BV can lead to problems with pregnancy and an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
A team of researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard; and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has discovered that , one of the most abundant fatty acids in the body, restores a healthy balance of vaginal microbes in a laboratory model of BV. Their findings, in , demonstrate that oleic acid and several other unsaturated long-chain (uLCFAs), which are critical components of cell membranes and can have antimicrobial properties, simultaneously inhibit the growth of vaginal microbes associated with and promote other species associated with a healthier female genital tract.
Treatments that promote this balance of microbes could one day help prevent repeat vaginal infections in people. "Current treatment methods work as well as a coinflip, and that hasn't changed in more than 40 years of medical practice, so new methods are needed to help patients," said first author Meilin Zhu, who recently graduated with a Ph.D.
from the labs of Paul Blainey, a Broad core in.