Abstract
Background: Current results about the correlation between microbiome in lower respiratory tract and phenotypes of asthma are inconsistent. Patients enrolled in some studies had long-term drug usage history and it could not completely rule out the effect of drugs on the results of microbiome.
Objective: The study aimed to explore the microbiome in lower respiratory tract of healthy people and steroid-free asthmatics.
Methods: 20 asthmatics and 10 healthy people were enrolled, and their bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) was obtained. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for pairwise comparisons(QIIMME 1.8.0).
Results: Compared with healthy controls, allergic asthmatics had higher Firmicutes (P=0.02) and lower Bacteroidetes(P=0.03). At genus level,allergic asthmatics had an altered bacterial composition, with more Lactobacillus(P=0.02), Romboutsia(P=0.03)and Parabacteroides (P<0.05),less Prevotella_9(P<0.01)and Bacteroides(P<0.05). Non-allergic asthmatics had higher Firmicutes (P=0.02), Actinobacteria(P=0.02),and lower Bacteroidetes (P=0.01) in comparison with healthy controls. At genus level,non-allergic asthmatics had higher level of Lactobacillus (P=0.01), Romboutsia(P=0.04) and Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group (P=0.03),lower level of Prevotella_9(P<0.01), Faecalibacterium (P=0.03) and Bacteroides(P=0.05). Allergic asthmatics had higher abundance of Parabacteroides(P<0.05)than non-allergic asthmatics.
Conclusion: Relative abundances of some microbes in lower respiratory tract of patients with asthma are different from healthy controls and the composition of microbiome in lower respiratory tract of asthmatics is associated with phenotype of asthma, which deserves further investigation of molecular mechanisms.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, PA533.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2019