[Exploratory analysis of gut microbiota differences in patients with bronchial asthma of different inflammatory types]

Abstract

Objective: To observe the characteristics and differences of gut microbiota in asthma patients with different inflammatory types through metagenomic analysis. Methods: Adults aged ≥18 years who visited the Respiratory Clinic of Peking University Third Hospital from August 1, 2021 to August 31, 2022 and were primarily diagnosed with asthma were selected as the study subjects. Finally, 29 patients with stable asthma were included. Fresh fecal samples were collected and the fecal DNA was extracted for high-throughput 16sRNA sequencing of gut microbiota. The diversity and community structure of gut microbiota in different groups of asthma patients were compared, and the species differences were analyzed through random forest and LEfSe analysis. Results: There were sex-based differences in asthma patients with different types of inflammation, and the proportion of female patients was higher in neutrophilic asthma patients (χ²=4.14, P=0.042). There was no significant intergroup difference in the alpha diversity of gut microbiota among asthma patients with different inflammatory types, but there were significant differences in the microbiome. Patients with neutrophilic asthma had higher relative abundance of Bacillales (P=0.029) and Oscillospiraceae (P=0.015). In species LEfSe analysis, patients with eosinophilic asthma had a higher relative abundance of fungi. Conclusion: There are intergroup differences in the gut microbiota of asthma patients with different inflammation types, and fungi are biomarkers that distinguish the differences in gut microbiota between patients with eosinophilic asthma and neutrophilic asthma.