Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29424773›Full record

ReviewAIDS (London, England)2018

Vaginal microbiota and susceptibility to HIV.

McKenna C Eastment, R Scott McClelland

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in AIDS (London, England), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Contribution ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021
    Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Cervicovaginal microbiome alterations across HPV infection.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Hallmarks of Bacterial Vaginosis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

McKenna C EastmentDepartment of Medicine.
R Scott McClellandDepartment of Medicine.

Funding

VENEREAL DISEASET32AI007140 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI Julia Cook Dombrowski · 1985 to 2026
$19.4M
RCT of an Implementation Science Tool to Integrate HIV testing into Family Planning Services K24HD088229 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCCLELLAND, RAYMOND SCOTT · 2016 to 2020
$863k
NIAID NIH HHS T32 AI007140NICHD NIH HHS K24 HD088229
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

: Bacterial vaginosis, characterized by the replacement of the Lactobacillus-dominant microbiota with anaerobic bacteria and facultative Gram-negative rods, has been associated with adverse reproductive health outcomes including HIV acquisition. With the advent of newer molecular techniques, the vaginal microbiota can be investigated in more detail and the association with HIV examined more thoroughly. This review examines recent evidence suggesting that vaginal dysbiosis with increased microbial diversity, specific vaginal bacterial communities, and the presence and concentrations of some individual bacterial species, may increase HIV susceptibility. Potential mechanisms through which vaginal microbiota could impact HIV susceptibility are discussed. On the basis of the available data, this review finds that there is a modest, but growing, body of evidence linking vaginal microbiota to HIV susceptibility in women. The evidence could be strengthened through two main pathways. First, laboratory studies such as ex-vivo or animal experiments are needed to move from plausible mechanisms towards proven mechanisms that explain an effect of the vaginal microbiota on HIV susceptibility. Second, experimental evidence could directly test the hypothesis that sustaining optimal microbiota reduces HIV risk, though there are important obstacles to conducting such studies. Finally, this review examines strong evidence from a recent publication suggesting that deviations from an optimal vaginal microbiome, and particularly the presence of some bacterial communities with high relative abundance of Gardnerella vaginalis, reduces the efficacy of vaginal tenofovir-based microbicides.

Indexed as

Disease SusceptibilityMicrobiotaFemaleHIV InfectionsHumansVagina

Identifiers

PMID29424773
PMCPMC5957511

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.