Socioeconomic and Microenvironmental Factors Associated with the Vaginal Microbiota in Peri- and Post- Menopausal Women

与围绝经期和绝经后妇女阴道微生物群相关的社会经济和微环境因素

• 批准号: 10641869
• 负责人: Christina Stennett
• 金额: $ 7.28万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2023-12-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10641869
• 关键词: Affect; African American; Age; Aging; Anaerobic Bacteria; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Area; Award; Bacteria; Bacterial Vaginosis; Characteristics; Chronic; Chronic stress; Clinical; Communities; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cues; Data; Disparity; Education; Epidemiology; Estrogen decline; Estrogens; Ethnic Origin; Genitourinary System Infection; Genitourinary system; Gonadal Steroid Hormones; Gynecologic; HIV; Health; Hispanic; Human Microbiome; Immune; Immune response; Immunologic Markers; Income; Individual; Inflammatory; Interferon Type II; Knowledge; Lactobacillus; Link; Longevity; Low income; Matched Case-Control Study; Menopausal Symptom; Menopausal Syndrome; Menopause; Menstruation; Methods; Microbe; Minority Women; Modeling; Molecular; Molecular Epidemiology; Morbidity - disease rate; NIH Program Announcements; National Institute on Aging; Neighborhoods; Observational Study; Organism; Pain; Parents; Pathogenicity; Perimenopause; Personal Satisfaction; Phase; Play; Population; Postmenopause; Predisposition; Premature Menopause; Prevalence; Prevention; Prevotella; Probiotics; Property; Proxy; Race; Reporting; Reproductive Health; Research; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Role; Sampling; Severities; Sexual Partners; Sexual Transmission; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Shapes; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomic Status; Streptococcus; Surveys; Symptoms; TNF gene; Target Populations; Testing; Time; Training; Urinary tract; Urinary tract infection; Vagina; Vaginal Discharge; Vaginal Douching; Woman; Work; aged; chemokine; clinical diagnosis; condoms; cytokine; demographics; epidemiology study; ethnic disparity; ethnic minority population; experience; indexing; infection risk; inflammatory marker; innovation; microbial host; microbiome; microbiome composition; microbiota; molecular targeted therapies; novel; older women; pathogen; population based; prevent; racial disparity; racial minority population; reproductive; sociodemographic factors; socioeconomics; therapy development; tumor-immune system interactions; vaginal dryness; vaginal lactobacilli; vaginal microbiota

PROJECT SUMMARY The dissertation project described in this re-submission proposes original research questions and utilizes innovative methods in molecular epidemiology to investigate the vaginal microenvironment of older women. Menopausal women are a growing population in the U.S. A major morbidity that affect post-menopausal women is genitourinary symptoms, including vaginal dryness and vulvovaginal pain. This dissertation investigates how vaginal bacteria and immunologic markers are associated with genitourinary symptoms in peri- and postmenopausal women. This dissertation also seeks to reveal how disparities in the vaginal microenvironment for older women vary by socioeconomic statuses (SES). This proposal to the Aging Research Dissertation Awards to Increase Diversity Program Announcement (R36) focuses on key aging- related health concerns and facilitates training in epidemiology of aging and molecular epidemiology. Vaginal microbiota, dominated by Lactobacillus spp., play an important role in preventing colonization by pathogenic organisms, including urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and maintain a woman’s gynecologic and reproductive health. The vaginal immunologic microenvironment is profoundly influenced by sex hormones, including estrogens, and has co-evolved with microbes to maintain a homeostatic host-microbial relationship. In reproductive-aged women, depletion of vaginal lactobacilli, such as in the clinical diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (BV), can cause undesirable symptoms including vaginal discharge and malodor. However, less is known about the molecular cues of vulvovaginal symptoms in the genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Further, few studies have carefully evaluated the underlying socioeconomic mechanisms, including education, income, and neighborhood characteristics, that, in combination, may help to explain known racial/ethnic disparities in BV, STIs, and GSM. This project will fill critical knowledge gaps related to the role of menopause and SES in shaping the vaginal microbiota. The specific aims of this dissertation are to determine: 1) the time-varying associations between GSM symptoms and the composition of the vaginal microbiota of peri- and postmenopausal women in a 10-week observational study; 2) the association between GSM and vaginal cytokine/chemokine levels in an age- and vaginal microbiota-matched case-control study of peri- and postmenopausal women; and 3) how vaginal microbiota of peri- and postmenopausal women differ by SES using a composite index of SES factors in a large cross-sectional study. The R36 will leverage existing microbiota and immune data for efficient research, and the novel aims and analyses do not overlap with the parent studies. In keeping with a research objective of the National Institute on Aging, to define the factors that influence microbiome composition and functional characteristics during aging, this work will evaluate compositional differences in the vaginal microenvironment of diverse menopausal women and identify molecular targets for treatment and/or prevention of GSM.

项目总结