The Emerging Role of the Urinary Microbiome in Benign Noninfectious Urological Conditions: An Up-to-Date Systematic Review - Beyond the Abstract
To familiarize the urological community with this topic, we provided an overview of bioinformatics methodologies employed in urinary microbiome analysis. Advanced bioinformatics techniques like operational taxonomic units and amplicon sequence variants, due to their roles in enhancing the precision of taxonomic identification within urinary microbiome studies are essential to develop studies in this domain. Additionally, we delved into the current literature regarding the urinary microbiome's associations with diverse urological conditions like benign prostatic hyperplasia, overactive bladder, calcium oxalate stones, and chronic pelvic pain syndrome. The findings notably unveil distinct microbial taxonomic profiles linked to each of these urological pathologies, underlining the potential relevance of the urinary microbiome in disease pathogenesis.
An important message is that standardizing protocols for sample collection, processing, and data analysis cannot be overstated, and the exploration of demographic, comorbidity, and disease-specific influences on the microbiome is touted as a promising avenue for uncovering distinct microbiomes as biomarkers. We believe that future studies will pave the way for microbiome-centric diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, representing a transformative perspective for the management of currently enigmatic conditions. This promising role in the etiopathogenesis of these benign but very common urological conditions may cause a paradigm shift in our understanding and thus alter management in the future.
Written by: Maria Camila Suarez Arbelaez, Joao G. Porto, & Hemendra N. Shah, Desai Sethi Urology Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL
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