Nasal microbiome predicts bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm infants

In infants born preterm, the nasal microbiome seems to correlate with the incidence and severity of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), reports a recent study.         

Researchers conducted a prospective, observational cohort study of 13 infants with BPD and 15 healthy controls, all of whom were born preterm. Polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing of the 16S rDNA was performed to characterize the microbial composition and diversity from nasal swabs, collected at weeks 1 and 3 of age.

A total of 49 nasal swabs were available for analysis, contributing a total of 2,951,645 high-quality reads. Dominant phyla included Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proterobacteria, while Escherichina, Staphylococcus, and Lachnospiraceae were among the most dominant genera.

Among infants with BPD, the expression of Prevotella 16S rDNA was significantly increased, while that of Caulobacter was lowered. Both were also found to be significantly correlated with BPD severity, according to Spearman’s analysis (r, 0.551; p=0.00005 and r, –0.545; p=0.00006, respectively).

Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis further revealed that both the Caulobacter and Prevotella taxa were good predictors of BPD, with areas under the curve of 0.821 and 0.796, respectively.

“In summary, the use of noninvasive nasal swabs of microbiome to explore the pathophysiology in BPD is a compelling method worthy continuing to expand and research,” the researchers said.

“Given possible roles for noninvasive upper airway microbiota in BPD pathobiology, monitoring and investigation of BPD infants, the nasal microbiome in BPD is a compelling area of research to continue to expand,” they added.