Department of Immunology and Pathogenic Biology, College of Basic Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shanxi, People's Republic of China.
Eye Hospital and School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Curr Microbiol. 2023 Oct 20;80(12):378. doi: 10.1007/s00284-023-03460-4.
Endophthalmitis is an acute inflammatory intraocular condition that can cause permanent vision loss. The treatment strategy and visual outcome partly depend on the identification of the agents of pathogens. In this study, metagenomic sequencing was conducted to investigate the microbial and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) composition in the vitreous (intraocular body fluid) of an endophthalmitis patient, who progressed rapidly and accompanied by severe pain. Metagenomic sequencing data revealed that the vitreous sample was predominated by Streptococcus, with a low-diversity microbiome in the vitreous. This strain harbor's the ARGs mainly against beta-lactam, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin, and multidrug. Additionally, metagenome-assembled genome sequence of Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. was identified. The Tetra Correlation Search (TCS) analysis uncovered that the closest relative of the Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. was Streptococcus mitis SK321. Pan/core genome analysis for Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. and TCS top 25 hits strains revealed that most unique genes of Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. were linked to ATP-binding cassette transport system, which could indicate unique virulence and pathogenic potentials of Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. In addition, a total of 7 virulence factors were identified, and the overwhelming of them were classified into "offensive virulence factors". The high pathogenicity of Streptococcus sp. v1. nov. could be a reason for the patient's rapid disease progression. Our study was first isolated an ocular pathogen with highly virulent based on metagenomic sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, which has important reference value for revealing the composition and genome characteristics of pathogens in endophthalmitis patient in the future.
眼内炎是一种可导致永久性视力丧失的急性眼部炎症。治疗策略和视力预后部分取决于病原体的鉴定。在这项研究中，我们采用宏基因组测序来研究一位快速进展并伴有严重疼痛的眼内炎患者眼内液（眼内体液）中的微生物和抗生素耐药基因（ARGs）组成。宏基因组测序数据显示，玻璃体样本主要由链球菌主导，且玻璃体中微生物组多样性较低。该菌株携带的 ARGs 主要针对β-内酰胺类、大环内酯类-林可酰胺类-链阳性菌素类和多药。此外，还鉴定了链球菌 sp. v1. nov 的宏基因组组装基因组序列。四相关搜索（TCS）分析发现，链球菌 sp. v1. nov. 的最近亲缘关系是缓症链球菌 SK321。链球菌 sp. v1. nov. 和 TCS 前 25 位命中菌株的泛/核心基因组分析表明，链球菌 sp. v1. nov. 的大多数独特基因与 ATP 结合盒转运系统相关，这可能表明链球菌 sp. v1. nov. 具有独特的毒力和致病潜力。此外，共鉴定出 7 种毒力因子，其中大多数被归类为“攻击性毒力因子”。链球菌 sp. v1. nov. 的高致病性可能是导致患者疾病快速进展的原因。我们的研究首次基于宏基因组测序和生物信息学分析分离出一种具有高致病性的眼部病原体，这对未来揭示眼内炎患者病原体的组成和基因组特征具有重要参考价值。
