Microbiota in Gut, Oral Cavity, and Mitral Valves Are Associated With Rheumatic Heart Disease

Abstract

Rheumatic heart disease refers to the long-term damage of heart valves and results from an autoimmune response to group A Streptococcus infection. This study aimed to analyze the microbiota composition of patients with rheumatic heart disease and explore potential function of microbiota in this disease. First, we revealed significant alterations of microbiota in feces, subgingival plaques, and saliva of the patients compared to control subjects using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Significantly different microbial diversity was observed in all three types of samples between the patients and control subjects. In the gut, the patients possessed higher levels of genera including Bifidobacterium and Eubacterium, and lower levels of genera including Lachnospira, Bacteroides, and Faecalibacterium. Coprococcus was identified as a super-generalist in fecal samples of the patients. Significant alterations were also observed in microbiota of subgingival plaques and saliva of the patients compared to control subjects. Second, we analyzed microbiota in mitral valves of the patients and identified microbes that could potentially transmit from the gut or oral cavity to heart valves, including Streptococcus. Third, we further analyzed the data using random forest model and demonstrated that microbiota in the gut, subgingival plaque or saliva could distinguish the patients from control subjects. Finally, we identified gut/oral microbes that significantly correlated with clinical indices of rheumatic heart disease. In conclusion, patients with rheumatic heart disease manifested important alterations in microbiota that might distinguish the patients from control subjects and correlated with severity of this disease.

Gut Microbiota Plays an Essential Role in the Onset of Membranous Nephropathy: Evidence from Multi-Center Case-Control Study and Animal Model

“…Gut microbiome is suggested to have relations with more and more diseases recent years and even can be used as non-invasive tools for many diseases such as COVID-19 [11,12,19]. In our study, diagnostic model was successfully constructed using 7 crucial OTUs by means of ve-fold cross-validation on random forest model.…”

The Salivary Microbiota of Patients With Primary Biliary Cholangitis Is Distinctive and Pathogenic

“…Second, some alterations of the PBC salivary microbiota differ from those of several autoimmune diseases. For example, compared with HC saliva, saliva of celiac disease patients ( 27 ) and rheumatoid arthritis patients ( 28 , 29 ) showed enriched Lactobacillus and Lactobacillus salivarius separately, which were not observed in the comparison between PBC patients and HCs; patients with rheumatic heart disease had enriched salivary Streptococcus and depleted salivary Prevotella and Veillonella , which were altered conversely in PBC patients ( 30 ); Bacteroidetes were enriched in PBC saliva but were depleted in the saliva of patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type-1 ( 31 ). Finally, compared with HCs, PBC patients exhibited depletion of salivary Lactobacillales, particularly Streptococcaceae , which was enriched in PBC faeces ( 3 , 4 ).…”

Renal Denervation Mitigated Fecal Microbiota Aberrations in Rats with Chronic Heart Failure

“…At the genus level, the HF group possessed decreased abundances of Lactobacillus and Alistipes, which had potential myocardial protective effects or anti-inflammatory function [23,24], and increased abundances of Bacteroides and Clostridium, which were harmful to the myocardium [25], compared with the control group. However, the abundance of Lactobacillus and Alistipes were increased, and Bacteroides and Clostridium were decreased in the RDN, Nog, and NEP groups compared to the HF group (Figure 4).…”