TY - JOUR T1 - Nasal microbiota and symptom persistence in acute respiratory tract infections in infants JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00066-2018 VL - 4 IS - 4 SP - 00066-2018 AU - Roland P. Neumann AU - Markus Hilty AU - Binbin Xu AU - Jakob Usemann AU - Insa Korten AU - Moana Mika AU - Loretta Müller AU - Philipp Latzin AU - Urs Frey A2 - , Y1 - 2018/10/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/4/4/00066-2018.abstract N2 - Acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) in infancy have been implicated in the development of chronic respiratory disease, but the complex interplay between viruses, bacteria and host is not completely understood. We aimed to prospectively determine whether nasal microbiota changes occur between the onset of the first symptomatic ARI in the first year of life and 3 weeks later, and to explore possible associations with the duration of respiratory symptoms, as well as with host, environmental and viral factors.Nasal microbiota of 167 infants were determined at both time-points by 16S ribosomal RNA-encoding gene PCR amplification and subsequent pyrosequencing. Infants were clustered based on their nasal microbiota using hierarchical clustering methods at both time-points.We identified five dominant infant clusters with distinct microbiota at the onset of ARI but only three clusters after 3 weeks. In these three clusters, symptom persistence was overrepresented in the Streptococcaceae-dominated cluster and underrepresented in the cluster dominated by “Others” (p<0.001). Duration of symptoms was not associated with the type of respiratory virus.Infants with prolonged respiratory symptoms after their first ARI tend to exhibit distinct microbial compositions, indicating close microbiota–host interactions that seem to be of importance for symptom persistence and recovery.Nasal microbiota in infants is associated with symptom persistence after acute symptomatic respiratory infections. http://ow.ly/3Mhh30mC1wJ ER -