Compositional differences between gut microbiota of adult patients with asthma and healthy controls

Abstract

Introduction: Asthma is a complex and multifactorial disorder, with severe public health implications. Over the last several years, our knowledge in the field of human gut microbiota has expanded and allowed us to understand its crucial role in the development of many diseases. Aim: To analyse the nature of human gut microbiota patterns among patients with asthma compared to healthy controls. Material and methods: Composition of the complex gut microbiota was analysed in faecal samples from 13 asthma patients and 7 healthy volunteers using Next-Generation Sequencing technology (NGS). The Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare the above two groups of subjects. Results: The composition of the gut microbiota of asthma patients differed from that of healthy volunteers at each of the analysed levels (p < 0.05). Compared to healthy individuals, bacterial diversity was significantly lowered among the asthma group, which is the evidence of gut microbiota depletion in asthma patients. The analysis of beta diversity showed that the gut community compositions of asthma are widely dispersed in contrast to the tight clustering observed in the control group. Finally, the similarity index was found to be lower in the inter-group comparison than in the intra-group comparison, which confirmed changes in the gut microbial composition in the asthmatic group. Conclusions: The study revealed significant differences in the human gut microbiome composition between asthma patients and the healthy control group.

The Gut–Organ Axis within the Human Body: Gut Dysbiosis and the Role of Prebiotics

“…The results showed significant differences in the human gut microbiome composition between asthma patients and the healthy control group at the genus and species level. Patients with asthma showed a significantly greater population of Parabacteroides, Paenibacillus, Sulfurimonas, and Lachnoclostridium, while the healthy group had a greater population of Faecalitalea, Haemophilus, Syntrophothermus, Methanocella, and Geobacter [147].…”

“…Numerous research groups have demonstrated alterations in the GM of healthy subjects compared to those of asthma patients in terms of composition and diversity [147][148][149]. In the study of Zou et al [149] faecal samples were collected from 20 healthy subjects and 47 newly diagnosed asthmatic patients.…”

The importance of the gut microbiome in the development of allergic diseases

“…Hoffmann et al [30] conducted a study to compare the composition of gut microbiota between patients with asthma and healthy individuals. The study included 20 samples, with 7 from healthy patients and 13 from asthmatic patients.…”

Global knowledge mapping and emerging research trends in the microbiome and asthma: A bibliometric and visualized analysis using VOSviewer and CiteSpace

“…The original “hygiene hypothesis” has been further substantiated and refined considering contemporary lifestyle changes, such as increased rates of cesarean section, elevated utilization of antibiotics, widespread adoption of formula feeding, and alterations in modern dietary patterns, all of which have significantly impacted the components of the intestinal microbiome [ 5 , 6 ]. Both gut flora dysbiosis and respiratory flora dysbiosis have been reported to be linked to the development of the immune system, and their association with the progression of asthma is also noteworthy [ 7 ]. In recent years, the integration of interdisciplinary approaches and advanced scientific tools into the asthma research has enhanced our comprehension of the condition.…”

“…Usually, the terms microbiome and microbiota are interchangeably utilized in the literature [ 13 , 14 ]. In recent years, it has been consistently shown that the intestinal microbiota, respiratory microbiota, and skin microbiota are closely associated with the progression of asthma [ 7 , 13 , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] ]. The microbiomes of different anatomical sites do not affect the progression of asthma independently, while the microbiomes across various anatomical sites are interconnected and engage in mutual interactions.…”