Throat microbiota drives alterations in pulmonary alveolar microbiota in patients with septic ARDS

ABSTRACT

Objectives

The translocation of intestinal flora has been linked to the colonization of diverse and heavy lower respiratory flora in patients with septic ARDS, and is considered a critical prognostic factor for patients.

Methods

On the first and third days of ICU admission, BALF, throat swab, and anal swab were collected, resulting in a total of 288 samples. These samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA analysis and the traceability analysis of new generation technology.

Results

On the first day, among the top five microbiota species in abundance, four species were found to be identical in BALF and throat samples. Similarly, on the third day, three microbiota species were found to be identical in abundance in both BALF and throat samples. On the first day, 85.16% of microorganisms originated from the throat, 5.79% from the intestines, and 9.05% were unknown. On the third day, 83.52% of microorganisms came from the throat, 4.67% from the intestines, and 11.81% were unknown. Additionally, when regrouping the 46 patients, the results revealed a significant predominance of throat microorganisms in BALF on both the first and third day. Furthermore, as the disease progressed, the proportion of intestinal flora in BALF increased in patients with enterogenic ARDS.

Conclusions

In patients with septic ARDS, the main source of lung microbiota is primarily from the throat. Furthermore, the dynamic trend of the microbiota on the first and third day is essentially consistent.It is important to note that the origin of the intestinal flora does not exclude the possibility of its origin from the throat.

KEYWORDS:

• Sepsis
• ARDS
• bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
• throat swab
• anal swab
• 16S rRNA

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2024.2350775.

Acknowledgements

We shall thank all the doctors, nurses and clinical scientists who worked in the hospital during the period of patient recruitment as well as the patients who were involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Author contributions

All authors participated in the design, KY,MZ,CW,NL,KK,YZ andYL searched for the articles, screened titles and abstracts and extracted data. YP,LW,MM,FL and YL performed statistical analysis and interpretation of data.NL,KK,YL,JZ,YC,YW,JL,PC,QZ drafted the manuscript, and all authors revised it for important intellectual content. Final approval of the version submitted for publication was obtained for all authors.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the first affiliated hospital of Harbin Medical University (IRB-AF/SC-04/02.0), Harbin, China And this study was conducted adhering to a protocol that was approved by the Medical Ethics Research Committee of our hospital. In this study, all research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China-Regional Innovation and Development Joint Fund (U20A20366) and the Postdoctoral Science Startup Foundation of the Heilongjiang Provincial Science (Grant 21042180268).