Airway Microbiota in Severe Asthma and Relationship to Asthma Severity and Phenotypes

Qingling Zhang, Michael Cox, Zhike Liang, Folke Brinkmann, Paul A Cardenas, Rachael Duff, Pankaj Bhavsar, William Cookson, Miriam Moffatt and Kian Fan Chung

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Background: The lower airways harbor a community of bacterial species which is altered in asthma. Objectives: We examined whether the lower airway microbiota were related to measures of asthma severity. Methods: We prospectively recruited 26 severe asthma, 18 non-severe asthma and 12 healthy subjects. DNA was extracted from induced sputum and PCR amplification of the V3-V5 region of bacterial 16S rRNA gene was performed. Results: We obtained 138,218 high quality sequences which were rarefied at 133 sequences/sample. Twenty OTUs had sequences ≥1% of total. There were marked differences in the distribution of Phyla between groups (P = 2.8x10-118). Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria were reduced in non-severe and severe asthmatic groups. Proteobacteria were more common in non-severe asthmatics compared to controls (OR = 2.26; 95% CI = 1.94–2.64) and Firmicutes were increased in severe asthmatics compared to controls (OR = 2.15; 95%CI = 1.89–2.45). Streptococcal OTUs amongst the Firmicutes were associated with recent onset asthma, rhinosinusitis and sputum eosinophilia. Conclusions: Sputum microbiota in severe asthma differs from healthy controls and non-severe asthmatics, and is characterized by the presence of Streptococcus spp with eosinophilia. Whether these organisms are causative for the pathophysiology of asthma remains to be determined.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0152724

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152724

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