Conclusions
COVID-19 disease in pregnant women causes dysbiosis in vaginal microbiota with a significant reduction in the abundance of Lactobacillus combined with an increase of Bacteroidetes, especially inPrevotella timonensis . We detected that the severity of the disease was associated with increased Ureaplasma spp. Based on these findings, we suggest that COVID-19 promotes an unfavorable vaginal microenvironment, which may provide insight into the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth. These results raise clinically relevant questions regarding the use of microbiome associated biomarkers as a risk assessment tool for preterm birth in pregnant women during COVID-19. The implication of findings would postulate possible targeted therapy, comprising modification of the vaginal microbiota composition in pregnant women with COVID-19.
Disclosure of interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Contribution to authorship: F.C., E.C., G.O. and C.V. designed and conducted the research. F.C., M. K., O.D., E.C., O.E., G.O., C.V., A.G. and O.K. interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript. S.G.C and E.C. collected the samples and clinical outcomes. G.O. and C.V. processed the samples, prepared the DNA for sequencing, and conducted the experiments. E.P., G.O., C.V., E.C. analyzed the data and prepared the figures and tables. E.P. processed the bioinformatic analysis. A.G. and O.K. supervised the bioinformatics analysis.
Details of ethics approval: The ethical approval was obtained for the healthy controls and pregnant women with COVID-19 from Koc University Research Ethics Board (No:2019.093IRB2.030 and No:2020.138.IRB1.028). The written consent forms were obtained from all participants.
Funding: This study was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, Project no:119S463).