Identification of culturable vaginal Lactobacillus species by means of MALDI-TOF MS: a proof-of-concept study


https://doi.org/10.4081/wpph.2021.9461
Vol. 9 No. 1 (2021)
Published: 30 December 2021
Lactobacillus, Gardnerella vaginalis, spectrometry, mass, matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization, statistics, biological
Abstract Views: 583
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Authors

  • Christian Leli
    christian.leli@ospedale.al.it
    Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Daria Vay Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Lidia Ferrara Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Valentina Pizzo Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Laura Carrabba Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Valeria Cavallo Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Manuela Annalisa Varlotta Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Valentina Bigucci Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Valentina Repetto Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.
  • Serena Penpa Infrastruttura Ricerca Formazione Innovazione, Dipartimento Attività Integrate Ricerca Innovazione, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria , Italy.
  • Andrea Rocchetti Microbiology Laboratory, Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo, Alessandria, Italy.

Background: the study of vaginal microbiota is mainly performed by molecular methods. Nevertheless, they are expensive and not easily available in clinical microbiology laboratories. MALDI-TOF MS is being increasingly adopted for fast and accurate identification of pathogens from clinical samples. Aim of this study was to evaluate MALDI-TOF MS for identification of culturable bacterial species directly from plates streaked with vaginal swabs from a population of patients in childbearing age.
Methods: We included women of childbearing age evaluated from October 2020 to October 2021. Identification was performed by means of Vitek® MS system.
Results: A total of 381 patients were included in the study. Mean age was 33.3 years (±7.7) and 218/381 (57.2%) were pregnant. The most frequent isolates were: Lactobacillus crispatus 85/381 (22.3%), Lactobacillus acidophilus/gasseri 77/381 (20.2%) and Lactobacillus iners 64/381 (16.8%), identified with a confidence value of 99.9%. Gardnerella vaginalis was identified in 74/381 (19.4%) patients.
Conclusions: In this proof-of-concept study we found that MALDI-TOF MS has the potential to be used to identify main Lactobacillus species directly from plates streaked with vaginal swabs.


Leli, C. ., Vay, D., Ferrara, L., Pizzo, V., Carrabba, L., Cavallo, V., Varlotta, M. A., Bigucci, V., Repetto, V., Penpa, S., & Rocchetti, A. (2021). Identification of culturable vaginal <i>Lactobacillus</i> species by means of MALDI-TOF MS: a proof-of-concept study. Working Paper of Public Health, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/wpph.2021.9461

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