A parasite that commonly causes sexually transmitted infections among women “cultivates” specific bacteria, according to new research carried out by David H. Martin, MD, Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans and his team.

The parasite, called Trichomonas vaginalis is a fairly common sexually transmitted infection (STI) of the urogenital tract among women, affecting more than 160 million females around the world. It is characterized by a green vaginal discharge that can lead to a series of health complications, such as preterm delivery and increased susceptibility to HIV infection.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, aimed to find out whether there are any unique bacterial communities which make women with bacterial vaginosis more at risk of developing trichomonas.

According to Dr. Martin:

“We discovered that there are two unique bacterial communities that are very strongly associated with trichomonas infection. In part what is unique about these communities is high concentrations of bacteria known as mycoplasmas. In fact one of these is a completely unknown bacterium which we have named Mnola because it is a mycoplasma discovered in NOLA.”

Women who suffer from trichomonas with a bacterial community called Myoplasma homins tend to discharge more and suffer from the disease worse than most other trichomona-infected women.

Dr Martin said: “We think that this group might also be at especially high risk for infection with HIV.”

The finding suggests that the parasite is part of the reason why these unique mycoplasma bacterial communities flourish.

Dr Martin concluded:

“So instead of these unique communities predisposing a woman to infection as originally thought, we now believe that trichomonas takes on the role of a farmer in the vaginal environment by cultivating bacterial communities that are in some way beneficial to itself. Proving this hypothesis and figuring out how these bacteria interact with trichomonas will be the subject of future research.”

In 2011 a Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert called for all sexually active American women above the age of 40 to get tested for Trichomonas vaginalis after researchers realized the STD may be far more common than previously thought.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist