Monash University

MONDAY, March 10, 2025 -- Treating male partners in addition to women with bacterial vaginosis results in a lower rate of recurrence than treating only women, according to a study published in the March 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine . Lenka A. Vodstrcil, Ph.D., from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre at Monash University in Australia, and colleagues conducted an open-label, randomized controlled trial involving monogamous heterosexual couples in which the woman had bacterial vaginosis. In the partner-treatment group, the woman received first-line recommended antimicrobial agents and the male partner received oral and topical antimicrobial treatment (metronidazole 400-mg tablets and 2 percent clindamycin cream applied to penile skin, both twice daily for seven days), while in the control group, the woman received first-line treatment and the male partner received no treatment. Eighty-one and 83 couples were assigned to the partner-treatment and control groups, respectively. After 150 couples had completed the 12-week follow-up period, the trial was stopped by the data and safety monitoring board because treatment of the woman only was inferior to treatment of both the woman and her male partner. The researchers found that recurrence occurred in 35 and 63 percent of women in the partner-treatment and control groups, respectively, in the modified intention-to-treat population (recurrence rate, 1.6 and 4.2 per person-year, respectively). Adverse events included nausea, headache, and metallic taste in treated men. "Our trial showed that treating male partners with a week of oral metronidazole and topical clindamycin, together with treatment of women, resulted in a lower rate of recurrence of bacterial vaginosis within 12 weeks than treatment of the woman alone," the authors write.

MONDAY, March 10, 2025 -- A common vaginal infection that affects nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide should be reclassified as a sexually transmitted infection (STI), a new study suggests. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is now treated as a women’s health issue, but researchers reported March 5 in The New England Journal of Medicine that treating male partners along with female patients reduced recurrence rates by 60%. The findings suggest BV is sexually transmitted, meaning that treating women only may not be enough to prevent reinfection. “Our trial has shown that reinfection from partners is causing a lot of the BV recurrence women experience, and provides evidence that BV is in fact a STI,” senior author Catriona Bradshaw , a professor at the Melbourne Sexual Health Center at Monash University in Australia, told CNN in an email. BV occurs when the balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted. Symptoms can include itching, pain while urinating, unusual vaginal discharge and an unpleasant odor, though many women have no symptoms at all. BV is more than just uncomfortable -- it can also pose serious health risks if left untreated. It increases the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It can also cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which can result in infertility . “We see very significant changes in a range of inflammatory markers, inflammatory cells and bacterial enzymes and products that result in damage to the epithelium -- the lining of the reproductive tract,” Bradshaw added. Doctors typically prescribe a week-long course of antibiotics to treat BV. However, research shows that for half of all women, the infection returns after treatment. In an Australian clinical trial, 164 monogamous couples were divided into two groups. In one group, both partners were treated with oral antibiotics, while men also applied a topical antibiotic to their penis twice daily. In the other group, only the women were treated. The results were clear: Women whose partners were also treated were 60% less likely to experience reinfection compared to those whose partners weren't treated. “The bacteria that cause BV can be located in men, especially in penile skin and also in the urethra,” lead author Lenka Vodstrcil , a senior research fellow at the Melbourne center, said in a news release. “This suggests that BV is probably sexually transmitted, and that is why so many women get it back again after treatment,” she added. Researchers ended the study early because the benefits of treating both partners became obvious so quickly. If BV is reclassified as an STI, it could change how doctors approach treatment, requiring them to inform male partners of their role in the infection happening again. This would be a “paradigm shift” and would require doctors to encourage a woman’s male partner to share their responsibility for transmission and treatment, according to an editorial published alongside the study. “It will also require a willingness of male partners to commit to taking both oral and topical medications, once notified by their female partner that she has bacterial vaginosis and that it is probably sexually transmitted,” the editorial pointed out. It was co-written by Dr. Christina Muzny , a professor of infectious disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Dr. Jack Sobel , a professor of infectious disease at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Researchers reported that male study participants had no issues completing the antibiotic course. “We have now used this medication in close to 300 men and have not had any report that side effects from the medication would stop them from taking it,” Bradshaw noted. The Melbourne center has already changed its treatment protocols to include male partners when BV is detected. Researchers have also developed a website for healthcare professionals and couples interested in treating both partners. “Changes in national and international treatment guidelines always take time, so we felt an obligation to provide accurate online and downloadable information,” Bradshaw concluded. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

大型语言模型（LLM）是一种人工智能系统，以自然语言的形式封装大量知识。这些系统擅长许多复杂任务，包括创意写作、讲故事、翻译、问答、总结和计算机代码生成。 尽管LLM已在自然科学领域得到初步应用，但其推动科学发现的潜力仍未得到充分开发。 在最新的研究中，澳大利亚莫纳什大学（Monash University）的研究团队提出了LLM4SD，这是一个框架，旨在通过综合文献中的知识和从科学数据中推断知识，利用LLM推动分子特性预测中的科学发现。 LLM通过从科学文献中提取关键信息（如分子量与溶解度的关系）并识别分子数据中的模式（如含卤素分子更易穿透血脑屏障），将分子转化为可解释的特征向量。再结合随机森林等模型，LLM4SD在分子特性预测任务中表现优异。 该研究以Large language models for scientific discovery in molecular property prediction为题，于2025年2月25日发布在《Nature Machine Intelligence》。 LLM是在大量文本语料库上进行训练的，其中包括大量科学文献。BioBert、SciBERT、Med-PALM和Galactica等著名模型都是专门针对科学领域量身定制的。同时，像Falcon这样的通用LLM在其预训练中整合了大量科学文献，包括arXiv和Wikipedia等来源。 科学家已经证明了这些系统获得了深刻的能力来解释和操纵用于描述分子的形式科学语言、SMILES字符串，以及在其解释中应用来自科学文献的信息的能力。 莫纳什大学的研究团队提出的科学发现流程LLM4SD（Large Language Model 4 Scientific Discovery），旨在解决复杂的分子特性预测任务。LLM4SD通过执行两个主要任务来发挥作用：从现有文献中合成知识并通过观察实验数据推断知识。 图示：分子预测流程中的LLM4SD LLM4SD通过指定规则来从SMILES字符串中导出与预测目标特征相关的特征。其中一些规则是从LLM编码的科学文献中综合而来的。其他特征则从SMILES字符串训练集推断而来，每个字符串都标有相关类别或属性值。然后可以使用基于规则的特征从训练数据中学习标准机器学习模型。 图示：探究LLM4SD的组成部分 具体而言，首先，LLM4SD根据其预训练文献检索已知规则来预测分子特性，例如分子量低于500 Da的分子更有可能通过血脑屏障(BBB)。其次，利用对SMILES符号和化学知识的理解，LLM4SD从实验数据中识别模式，例如含有卤素的分子更有可能通过BBB。然后使用这些规则为每个分子创建可解释的特征向量。 “就像ChatGPT写论文或解决数学问题一样，我们的LLM4SD工具会阅读数十年的科学文献并分析实验室数据来预测分子的行为方式，从而回答诸如‘这种药物能穿过大脑的保护屏障吗’或‘这种化合物会溶于水吗’”，论文的共同一作Yizhen Zheng说。 除了优于目前像黑匣子一样运行的验证工具之外，该系统还可以使用简单的规则解释其分析过程、预测和结果，这可以帮助科学家信任并根据其见解采取行动。他补充道。 图示：LLM4SD与四个领域的基线之间的比较 通过使用这些向量训练可解释的机器学习模型，研究人员表示LLM4SD在由斯坦福PANDE小组整理的MoleculeNet数据集中的58个基准任务中实现了分子特性预测的当前最佳水平。这些任务涵盖分类和回归，涉及四个领域：生理学、生物物理学、物理化学和量子力学。 图示：LLM规则下的文献综述和统计分析 作者之一Jiaxin Ju表示：LLM4SD并非取代传统的机器学习模型，而是通过综合知识和生成可解释的解释来增强它们。 这种方法确保了人工智能驱动的预测仍然可靠，并且可供不同科学学科的研究人员使用。共同作者Huan Yee Koh补充道。 该研究的共同通讯作者、莫纳什大学信息技术学院的Geoffrey I. Webb教授表示，LLM可以准确地模仿从文献中综合提炼知识和通过解释数据提出假设的关键科学发现技能。 LLM4SD工具的表现优于目前用于执行这些任务的最先进的科学工具；例如，它在预测材料设计关键的量子特性方面的准确率提高了48%。 虽然取得了这些令人欣喜的成果，研究人员也承认科学发现领域广阔而复杂；这项研究还只是触及了表面。尽管如此，LLM4SD取得的进展为更深入的探索铺平了道路，预示着一个人工智能驱动的洞察力与人类智慧交织在一起以纠正当前科学生产力下降的时代的到来。 Webb教授表示：我们已经完全进入了生成人工智能时代，我们需要尽可能利用它来推动科学发展，同时确保我们以合乎道德的方式发展它。 该工具有可能使药物发现过程更容易、更快、更准确，并成为世界各地各个领域科学家的强大研究支持。论文的共同通讯作者Shirui Pan教授表示。 像LLM4SD这样的模型可以快速综合数十年的先验知识，然后转而发现数据中可能未被广泛报道的新模式。Pan教授说，我们认为这是加快研发进程及其他方面的关键进展。 展望未来，科学家们对人工智能作为未来科学发现、革命性流程和加速突破的关键所发挥的潜在作用持乐观态度。 论文链接： https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-025-00994-z 本文转自【ScienceAI】公众号 --------- End --------- 感兴趣的读者，可以添加小邦微信加入读者实名讨论微信群。添加时请主动注明姓名-企业-职位/岗位或姓名-学校-职务/研究方向。