Comparison of viromes in vaginal secretion from pregnant women with and without vaginitis

Although some studies have investigated the bacterial community in vaginal tract of pregnant women, there are few reports about the viral community (virome) in this type of microenvironment.

To investigate the composition of virome in vaginal secretion samples, 40 vaginal secretion samples from pregnant women with vaginitis and 20 vaginal secretion samples from pregnant women without vaginitis, pooled into 4 and 2 sample pools, respectively, were subjected to viral metagenomic analysis.

Results indicated virus sequences showing similarity to human papillomavirus (HPV), anellovirus, and norovirus were recovered from this cohort of pregnant women. Further analysis indicated that 15 different defined types and one unclassified type of HPV were detected from pregnant women with vaginitis while only 3 defined types of HPV were detected in pregnant women without vaginitis. Five different groups of viruses from the family Anelloviridae were present in pregnant women with but none of them were detected in pregnant women without vaginitis. Norovirus was detected in 3 out of the 4 sample pools from pregnant women with vaginitis but none in the pregnant women without vaginitis. Twelve complete genomes belonging to 10 different types of HPV, and 5 novel anllovirus genomes belonging 2 different genera in Anelloviridae were acquired from these libraries, based on which phylogenetical analysis and pairwise sequence comparison were performed. Phageome in these samples was also briefly characterized and compared between two groups.

Our data suggested that virome might play an important role in the progression of vaginitis in pregnant women.