Multi-omics Association Analysis Reveals Interactions Between the Oropharyngeal Microbiome and the Metabolome in Pediatric Patients with Influenza A Virus Pneumonia

Overview

Journal Front Cell Infect Microbiol

Specialties Cell Biology
Infectious Diseases
Microbiology

Date 2022 Nov 17

PMID 36389138

Authors

Qian Hu

Baiming Liu

Yanqun Fan

Yuejie Zheng

Feiqiu Wen

Uet Yu

Wenjian Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Children are at high risk for influenza A virus (IAV) infections, which can develop into severe illnesses. However, little is known about interactions between the microbiome and respiratory tract metabolites and their impact on the development of IAV pneumonia in children. Using a combination of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we analyzed the composition and metabolic profile of the oropharyngeal microbiota in 49 pediatric patients with IAV pneumonia and 42 age-matched healthy children. The results indicate that compared to healthy children, children with IAV pneumonia exhibited significant changes in the oropharyngeal macrobiotic structure ( 0.001), and significantly lower microbial abundance and diversity ( 0.05). These changes came with significant disturbances in the levels of oropharyngeal metabolites. Intergroup differences were observed in 204 metabolites mapped to 36 metabolic pathways. Significantly higher levels of sphingolipid (sphinganine and phytosphingosine) and propanoate (propionic acid and succinic acid) metabolism were observed in patients with IAV pneumonia than in healthy controls. Using Spearman's rank-correlation analysis, correlations between IAV pneumonia-associated discriminatory microbial genera and metabolites were evaluated. The results indicate significant correlations and consistency in variation trends between and three sphingolipid metabolites (phytosphingosine, sphinganine, and sphingosine). Besides these three sphingolipid metabolites, the sphinganine-to-sphingosine ratio and the joint analysis of the three metabolites indicated remarkable diagnostic efficacy in children with IAV pneumonia. This study confirmed significant changes in the characteristics and metabolic profile of the oropharyngeal microbiome in pediatric patients with IAV pneumonia, with high synergy between the two factors. Oropharyngeal sphingolipid metabolites may serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers of IAV pneumonia in children.

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