DC Academy | mNGS Reveals the Lung Microbiome of Patients with Pneumoconiosis and Infection

/ Research Background /

Pneumoconiosis is a chronic progressive disease that is prevalent worldwide, with more than 60,000 new cases reported globally in 2017.In recent years, with the development and optimization of the industry, the incidence of pneumoconiosis has decreased slightly, but the mortality rate remains high, posing a serious threat to global public health.

Patients with pneumoconiosis usually have respiratory mucosal damage, and this symptom is likely to be accompanied by lower respiratory tract infection.Many patients with advanced pneumoconiosis died of respiratory failure due to lung infection, and the overall prognosis was poor.Therefore, for patients with lung injury such as pneumoconiosis, early diagnosis of lung infection is very important.However, patients with pneumoconiosis often have high rates of co-infection, which may complicate diagnosis and treatment.Currently, there are no comprehensive studies on the microbiome of patients with pneumoconiosis and lung infection.In this study, mNGS analyzed the lung microbial characteristics of the pneumoconiosis population while accurately diagnosing,to some extent fillthis research gap.

Research Highlights

1. The application of mNGS technology has fully revealed the lung microbiome of patients with pneumoconiosis and infection;

2. To explore the differences in the lung microbiome between patients with pneumoconiosis and non-pneumoconiosis, and to explore potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with pneumoconiosis.

Enrolled patients

Figure 1 Flowchart of research admission and discharge

/ Research result /

1. mNGS reveals the lung microbial profile of patients with pneumoconiosis

A total of 521 types of bacteria, 78 types of fungi, and 17 types of viruses were detected in the BALF samples of pneumoconiosis, among which the species with high detection frequency of bacteria were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas maltophilia, and R. slipperiella; fungal detection ranking The top three were Aspergillus flavus, Pneumocystis jirovecii and Schizophyllum; the detection rate of herpes virus was higher in patients with pneumoconiosis (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Lung microbiome of patients with pneumoconiosis (BALF)

2. Pneumoconiosis with infection and non-pneumoconiosis with infectionDifferential Microbiota Analysis

There were significant differences in the abundance of Mycobacterium columbia and Fusobacterium nucleatum between the P group and the non-P group (Fig. 3A), the former was mainly detected in pneumoconiosis patients, and the latter was mainly detected in non-pneumoconiosis patients.Another LEfSe analysis showed that Mycobacterium, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Capnocytophaga were significantly different between the two groups (Fig. 3B).

Figure 3 Analysis of species differences between P group and non-P group

3. Mycobacterium Columbia and pneumoconiosis patientsworking yearsPositively correlated

Sperman's correlation analysis showed that oral bacteria such as Prevotella were significantly negatively correlated with patient age, pneumoconiosis years, and lymphocyte count, which may mean that the abundance of these microorganisms decreased with the progression of pneumoconiosis.M. columbianum was positively associated with pneumoconiosis-related work years, suggesting that M. columbia infection may increase with the progression of pneumoconiosis (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Clinical and microbiological correlation analysis

4. mNGS detection of patients with pneumoconiosis and pulmonary infectionPathogenic spectrum of fungi and viruses

Compared with 16S, which can only identify bacteria in samples, mNGS can simultaneously analyze fungi and viruses in samples.As shown in Figure 5, we detected a higher detection rate of Malassezia and Pneumocystis in the P group, and herpesvirus was detected in most samples, while the detection rate of the virus was higher in the P group .

Fig.5 Analysis of viruses and fungi in P group and non-P group

/ Analysis conclusion /

This study explored differences in the lung microbiome between patients with pneumoconiosis and lung infection without pneumoconiosis.The findings confirmed that Mycobacterium columbia was positively associated with pneumoconiosis-associated work years, tentatively suggesting a link between pneumoconiosis and the microbe.In addition, the study found that these different microbial species can be used as potential biomarkers of pneumoconiosis, providing basic data for studying the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis.

references:

Yuan X, Xie L, Shi Z and Zhou M (2023) Application of mNGS in the study of pulmonary microbiome in pneumoconiosis complicated with pulmonary infection patients and exploration of potential biomarkers. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 13:1200157. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1200157

Compilation: Eleven Review: Good Typesetting: Ah Xin