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).