Altered community compositions of Proteobacteria in adults with bronchiectasis

Abstract

Wei-Jie Guan,1,2 Jing-Jing Yuan,1 Hui-Min Li,1 Yong-Hua Gao,3 Chun-Lan Chen,1 Yan Huang,1 Rong-Chang Chen,1 Nan-Shan Zhong1,2 1State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Sino-French Hoffmann Institute, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China Background: Bronchiectasis is a debilitating disease with chronic airway infection. Proteobacteria, the dominant phylum, can be detected with high-throughput sequencing.Objective: To stratify Proteobacteria compositions according to culture findings in bronchiectasis.Patients and methods: We sampled sputum, split for culture and 16srRNA sequencing, from 106 patients with stable bronchiectasis and 17 healthy subjects. Paired sputa from 22 bronchiectasis patients were collected during exacerbations and convalescence.Results: Forty-five, 41, and 20 patients with clinically stable bronchiectasis had isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), other potentially pathogenic microorganisms, and commensals at the initial visit, respectively. The PA group (but not other groups) demonstrated significantly greater relative abundance of Proteobacteria, and lower Shannon–Wiener Diversity Index, Simpson Diversity Index, and richness compared with healthy subjects. Pseudomonas was the dominant genus that discriminated bronchiectasis patients (particularly in the PA group) from healthy subjects. Compared with baseline levels, Proteobacteria community compositions in the PA group, but not in other groups, were more resilient during exacerbations and convalescence.Conclusion: Proteobacteria community compositions could be partially reflected by conventional sputum bacterial culture. Significantly altered Proteobacteria community compositions – particularly, the increased relative abundance of Pseudomonas and diminished community diversity – represent critical targets for novel interventions to restore normal airway microenvironment in patients with bronchiectasis. Keywords: bronchiectasis, Proteobacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, culture, exacerbation

Keywords

• Bronchiectasis
• Proteobacteria
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• culture
• exacerbation