Exploratory analysis of gut microbiota differences in childhood asthma with different severity

Abstract

Objective·To explore the characteristics and differences of gut microbiota in children with different severity of bronchial asthma, and build a prediction model of gut microbiota in severe asthma.Methods·In this study, children aged 5 to 14 diagnosed with asthma in the Department of Respiratory Medicine of Children's Hospital of Fudan University from Sep 1, 2020 to Aug 31, 2022 were selected, and children with severe asthma (SA) according to the Recommendations for Standardized Diagnosis and Management of Bronchial Asthma in Children (2020) were included. Children with mild to moderate asthma (MMA) and healthy children in the same period were matched according to age and gender. Stool samples collected from the three groups were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the gut microbiota diversity, structure, and composition were assessed. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was applied to compare the predictive efficacy for SA.Results·Fifty children were enrolled in the SA group, 54 children matched by gender and age were in the MMA group and 39 healthy children were in the healthy control group. The α diversity of gut microbiota significantly decreased in the asthma children (P<0.05), compared with that in the healthy control group. The relative abundance of Treponema was the highest in the SA group, followed by the MMA group and healthy control group (P<0.001). The relative abundance of Lactobacillus in the MMA group and SA group was higher than that in the healthy control group (both P<0.05). The SA group had a higher relative abundance of Prevotella, Lactobacillus, Eubacterium_eligens_group, Treponema, and Fusicatenibacter. The MMA group had a higher relative abundance of Barnesiella, Holdemanella, Romboutsia and Turicibacter. The healthy control group had a higher relative abundance of the uncultured and Muribaculaceae. Among them, the relative abundance of Barnesiella decreased in the SA group, and it was found to have the highest sensitivity and specificity in predicting SA (AUC 0.713, 95%CI 0.604‒0.815).Conclusion·The diversity of gut microbiota in asthma children is lower than that in healthy children, and the composition of gut microbiota differs among childhood asthma with different severity. The abundance of Barnesiella decreases in the SA group significantly, suggesting that analysis of gut microbiota may help in the assessment of childhood asthma with different severity.

Keywords

• childhood asthma
• severity
• gut microbiota
• 16s rrna
• barnesiella