{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,2]],"date-time":"2026-11-02T14:01:17Z","timestamp":1793628077401,"version":"4.5.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,17]],"date-time":"2025-01-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1737072000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100022083","name":"VLIRUOS","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100022083","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007229","name":"Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds UGent","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007229","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003130","name":"Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003130","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100013326","name":"Universitaire Stichting","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100013326","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> is a key pathogen in bacterial vaginosis (BV), but the role of the different <jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> species remains unclear. We investigated the role of four <jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> species, as well as <jats:italic>Fannyhessea vaginae<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Lactobacillus crispatus<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>L. iners<\/jats:italic> in BV.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>From 331 pregnant women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, BV was diagnosed using Nugent scoring and a cervicovaginal lavage was used to quantify <jats:italic>G. leopoldii<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>G. piotii<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>G. swidsinskii<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>G. vaginalis, F. vaginae, L. crispatus and L. iners<\/jats:italic> by qPCR. Univariate associations between these species and clinical outcomes were assessed. A logistic regression model and ROC curves were calculated to determine the best diagnostic marker for BV.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Here, <jats:italic>L. iners<\/jats:italic> (75.8%) was the most prevalent species and <jats:italic>G. vaginalis<\/jats:italic> (36.0%) the most common <jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> species. All investigated <jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> spp. were prevalent (50.9-57.9%) in women with (asymptomatic) BV. Univariate analysis revealed no significant associations with clinical symptoms of BV, while <jats:italic>F. vaginae<\/jats:italic> (positive Whiff test, high pH), <jats:italic>G. vaginalis<\/jats:italic> (high pH) and <jats:italic>L. crispatus<\/jats:italic> (low pH) were associated with signs of BV. <jats:italic>G. piotii<\/jats:italic> was associated with markers of urinary tract infection. Women with <jats:italic>L. iners<\/jats:italic> had higher odds of delivering preterm. ROC analyses showed that <jats:italic>F. vaginae<\/jats:italic> was the best marker for BV (AUC 0.81), and the combined model further increased the diagnostic performance (AUC 0.90).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>All <jats:italic>Gardnerella<\/jats:italic> species were involved in BV, although none were associated with the most important clinical symptoms of BV and none emerged as a superior molecular marker for BV.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2024.1514884","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,17]],"date-time":"2025-01-17T05:10:45Z","timestamp":1737090645000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Prevalence and clinical correlates of Gardnerella spp., Fannyhessea vaginae, Lactobacillus crispatus and L. iners in pregnant women in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Lisa","family":"Himschoot","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guy","family":"Mulinganya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tess","family":"Rogier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ghislain","family":"Bisimwa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Freddy","family":"Kampara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yvette","family":"Kujirakwinja","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jules","family":"Mongane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Innocent","family":"Mubalama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steven","family":"Callens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mario","family":"Vaneechoutte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Piet","family":"Cools","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.1097\/01.AOG.0000247627.84791.91","article-title":"Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis: 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data","volume":"109","author":"Allsworth","year":"2007","journal-title":"Obstet Gynecol."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/0002-9343(83)91112-9","article-title":"Nonspecific vaginitis. 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