Study name:
Bacterial Vaginosis Biofilms: Challenges to Current Therapies and Emerging Solutions; Daniela Machado1, Joana Castro1,2, Ana Palmeira-de-Oliveira3,4, José Martinez-de-Oliveira3,5 and Nuno Cerca1*
“Being polymicrobial in nature, BV etiology remains unclear. However, it is certain that BV involves the presence of a thick vaginal multi-species biofilm, where G. vaginalis is the predominant species. Similar to what happens in many other biofilm-related infections, standard antibiotics, like metronidazole, are unable to fully eradicate the vaginal biofilm, which can explain the high recurrence rates of BV. Furthermore, antibiotic therapy can also cause a negative impact on the healthy vaginal microflora. These issues sparked the interest in developing alternative therapeutic strategies. This review provides a quick synopsis of the currently approved and available antibiotics for BV treatment while presenting an overview of novel strategies that are being explored for the treatment of this disorder, with special focus on natural compounds that are able to overcome biofilm-associated antibiotic resistance.”
Current available treatments:
Metronidazole and clindamycin are shown to be effective against anaerobic microorganisms, though tinidazole was the most recently approved antimicrobial agent for BV treatment, and is considered an alternative antimicrobial agent, particularly whenever metronidazole and clindamycin are unavailable or not tolerated. Being a second generation nitroimidazole with a longer half-life than metronidazole, it requires lower dosages, to be taken less frequently than metronidazole.
Although antibiotics are effective against anaerobic microorganisms, the have an inability to completely eradicate the densely-structured polymicrobial BV biofilms-associated bacteria G. Vaginalis.