SPRUCE
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is the vaginal microbiome and metabolome associated with spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) in multiple pregnancies?
IRAS ID
299145
Contact name
Karen Wilding
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Being born earlier than expected (preterm birth) happens in over half of twin pregnancies. Sometimes, birth can be so early that nothing can be done to save the babies’ lives. When babies do survive, they can still be at risk of serious harm including damage to the brain, lungs and bowel, the severity often related to how early they are born. Unfortunately, tests used to find women at risk of preterm birth have only been proven to work when the woman is carrying one baby, not twins, and at present no treatment is proven to be effective in stopping a twin pregnancy from delivering early.
New interest has been shown in looking at the microscopic organisms (bacteria, yeasts and viruses) in the vagina during pregnancy and how these organisms may be related to premature birth, however to date all research on this has been done in pregnancies with only one baby.
We want to explore these organisms in twin pregnancies; taking swabs from the vagina at 16 weeks, 28 weeks and at delivery. By identifying the organisms present (both of women delivering prematurely and on time) we hope to better understand why preterm birth happens and help predict preterm labour in twin pregnancies. By recognising specific organisms linked with preterm birth, we also hope to be able to guide new targets for treatments to prevent preterm birth in twins.
Due to the small number of twin pregnancies, we also want to collect a measurement of how ‘stiff’ the neck of the womb (cervix) is along with blood samples. Research suggests there may be links with how stiff the cervix is and premature birth as well as markers within the blood that may help us predict preterm birth. We would plan to explore these in a future research study.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SW/0073
Date of REC Opinion
26 May 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion