Blood microbial signatures associated with mortality in patients with sepsis: A pilot study
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AbstractSepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by the dysregulated host response to infection. Nevertheless, our current knowledge of the microbial landscape in the blood of septic patients is still limited. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a sensitive method to quantitatively characterize microbiomes at various sites of the human body. In this study, we analyzed the blood microbial DNA of 22 adult patients with sepsis and 3 healthy subjects. The presence of non-human DNA was identified in both healthy and septic subjects. Septic patients had a markedly altered microbial DNA profile compared to healthy subjects over α- and β-diversity. Unexpectedly, the patients could be further divided into two subgroups (C1 and C2) based on β-diversity analysis. C1 patients showed much higher bacteria, viruses, fungi, and archaea abundance, and a higher level of α-diversity (Chao1, Observed and Shannon index) than both C2 patients and healthy subjects. The most striking difference was seen in the case of Streptomyces violaceusniger, Phenylobacterium sp. HYN0004, Caulobacter flavus, Streptomyces sp. 11-1-2, and Phenylobacterium zucineum, the abundance of which was the highest in the C1 group. Notably, C1 patients had a significantly poorer outcome than C2 patients. Moreover, by analyzing the patterns of microbe-microbe interactions in healthy and septic subjects, we revealed that C1 and C2 patients exhibited distinct co-occurrence and co-exclusion relationships. Together, our study uncovered two distinct microbial signatures in the blood of septic patients. Compositional and ecological analysis of blood microbial DNA may thus be useful in predicting mortality of septic patients.
All Author(s) ListChen H, Liu W, Coker OO, Qin N, Chen H, Wang Y, Liu X, Zhang L, Choi GYS, Wong WT, Leung CCH, Ling L, Hui M, Gin T, Wong SH, Chan MTV, Wu WKK
Journal nameHeliyon
Year2024
Month4
Volume Number10
Issue Number8
PublisherElsevier
Article numbere29572
ISSN2405-8440
LanguagesEnglish-United Kingdom
KeywordsBlood, Microorganism, Next-generation sequencing, Sepsis

Last updated on 2024-16-10 at 14:12