{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,19]],"date-time":"2026-07-19T13:58:49Z","timestamp":1784469529889,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,22]],"date-time":"2025-02-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740182400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":21,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["INV-037612"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INV-037612"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Open"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,3]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The Vaginal Microbiome Research Consortium for Africa (VMRC4Africa) study is a multicentre observational cohort study. We aim to enrol parallel cohorts of 100 women from two sites in two African countries (N=200) (Desmond Tutu HIV Centre [DTHC], South Africa; Kenya Medical Research Institute [KEMRI], Kenya) to evaluate detailed temporal fluctuations in vaginal microbiota in young, generally healthy women from Southern and Eastern Africa.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods and analysis<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Cohorts in Kenya and South Africa will be followed up twice a week for 10\u2009weeks to create detailed profiles of vaginal microbial community state types (CSTs; by 16S rRNA gene sequencing) and fungal communities (by internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing) and to identify women with stable\n                      <jats:italic>Lactobacillus crispatus<\/jats:italic>\n                      -dominated microbiota, with no evidence of genital inflammation, as assessed by the measurement of inflammatory cytokines.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Through the establishment of this African vaginal sample biorepository, the intention will be to cultivate\n                      <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolates to create a biobank from which to ultimately select geographically diverse\n                      <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n                      strains with health-promoting characteristics that can be co-formulated into live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV) for women in sub-Saharan Africa.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Ethics and dissemination<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The VMRC4Africa study has been granted ethical approval by the Human Research Ethics Committees in South Africa (UCT HREC: 611\/2022) and Kenya (KEMRI Scientific and Ethics Review Unit: SERU No. 4569). Deidentified microbial community compositional data will be made available on public databases. Results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2024-090938","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,22]],"date-time":"2025-02-22T22:35:48Z","timestamp":1740263748000},"page":"e090938","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Vaginal Microbiome Research Consortium for Africa: study protocol of a multicentre prospective clinical study to evaluate temporal vaginal microbial composition associated with maintenance of reproductive health in women in South Africa and Kenya"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5460-1977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Brian Ronald","family":"Kullin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, UCT Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Cape Town, Western Cape, South 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