Lu Zhiwei, Dai Wenkui, Liu Yanhong, Zhou Qian, Wang Heping, Li Dongfang, Yang Zhenyu, Li Yinhu, Xie Gan, Li Shuaicheng, Zheng Yuejie
Department of Respiratory Diseases, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen 518026, China.
Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Genes (Basel). 2017 Dec 11;8(12):380. doi: 10.3390/genes8120380.
In recent years, the morbidity of pneumonia (MPP) has increased significantly in China. A growing number of studies indicate that imbalanced respiratory microbiota is associated with various respiratory diseases. We enrolled 119 children, including 60 pneumonia patients and 59 healthy children. Nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) sampling was performed for gene analysis of all children. Sputum and OP swabs were obtained from patients for pathogen detection. Both the NP and OP microbiota of patients differ significantly from that of healthy children. Diseased children harbor lower microbial diversity and a simpler co-occurrence network in NP and OP. In pneumonia patients, NP and OP microbiota showed greater similarities between each other, suggesting transmission of NP microbiota to the OP. Aside from clinically detected pathogens, NP and OP microbiota analysis has also identified possible pathogens in seven cases with unknown infections. NP and OP microbiota in MPP and non-MPP are definitely similar. Respiratory infection generates imbalanced NP microbiota, which has the potential to transmit to OP. Microbiota analysis also promises to compliment the present means of detecting respiratory pathogens.
近年来，中国肺炎支原体肺炎（MPP）的发病率显著上升。越来越多的研究表明，呼吸道微生物群失衡与多种呼吸道疾病有关。我们招募了119名儿童，其中包括60名肺炎患者和59名健康儿童。对所有儿童进行了鼻咽（NP）和口咽（OP）采样以进行基因分析。从患者处获取痰液和OP拭子用于病原体检测。患者的NP和OP微生物群与健康儿童的微生物群有显著差异。患病儿童的NP和OP微生物多样性较低，共现网络更简单。在肺炎患者中，NP和OP微生物群彼此之间表现出更大的相似性，表明NP微生物群向OP传播。除了临床检测到的病原体外，NP和OP微生物群分析还在7例不明感染病例中鉴定出了可能的病原体。MPP和非MPP中的NP和OP微生物群肯定相似。呼吸道感染会导致NP微生物群失衡，这种失衡有可能传播到OP。微生物群分析也有望补充目前检测呼吸道病原体的方法。
