Cervicovaginal bacteria cause inflammation which in turn increases HIV risk. Profiling the cervicovaginal microbiome, therefore, is instrumental for vaccine development. We show that the microbiome profile captured by cervicovaginal lavage is comparable to samples obtained by vaginal swabs. Thus, lavage may serve as a sampling strategy in NHP vaccine studies.
Keywords: 16S rRNA; HIV; lavage; swab.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.