Department of Biology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Nat Med. 2019 Nov;25(11):1728-1732. doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0626-9. Epub 2019 Nov 7.
Probiotics are routinely administered to hospitalized patients for many potential indications but have been associated with adverse effects that may outweigh their potential benefits. It is particularly alarming that probiotic strains can cause bacteremia, yet direct evidence for an ancestral link between blood isolates and administered probiotics is lacking. Here we report a markedly higher risk of Lactobacillus bacteremia for intensive care unit (ICU) patients treated with probiotics compared to those not treated, and provide genomics data that support the idea of direct clonal transmission of probiotics to the bloodstream. Whole-genome-based phylogeny showed that Lactobacilli isolated from treated patients' blood were phylogenetically inseparable from Lactobacilli isolated from the associated probiotic product. Indeed, the minute genetic diversity among the blood isolates mostly mirrored pre-existing genetic heterogeneity found in the probiotic product. Some blood isolates also contained de novo mutations, including a non-synonymous SNP conferring antibiotic resistance in one patient. Our findings support that probiotic strains can directly cause bacteremia and adaptively evolve within ICU patients.
益生菌通常被用于治疗住院患者的多种潜在疾病,但也与一些潜在益处相比弊大于利的不良反应有关。特别令人震惊的是,益生菌株可能会引起菌血症,但缺乏血液分离株与给予的益生菌之间存在祖传联系的直接证据。在这里,我们报告了与未接受治疗的患者相比,接受益生菌治疗的重症监护病房(ICU)患者发生乳杆菌菌血症的风险明显更高,并提供了支持益生菌直接克隆传播到血液中的基因组学数据。基于全基因组的系统发育表明,从接受治疗的患者血液中分离出的乳杆菌与从相关益生菌产品中分离出的乳杆菌在系统发育上无法区分。事实上,血液分离株之间的微小遗传多样性在很大程度上反映了益生菌产品中预先存在的遗传异质性。一些血液分离株还含有新出现的突变,包括一个赋予一名患者抗生素耐药性的非同义 SNP。我们的研究结果支持益生菌株可直接引起菌血症,并在 ICU 患者体内适应性进化的观点。