Association of bacteriomes with drug susceptibility in lesions of pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Weili Du; Yingli Zhao; Chen Zhang; Li Zhang; Lijuan Zhou; Zuyu Sun; Xiaojie Huang; Nana Zhang; Zichen Liu; Kun Li; Nanying Che

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37583

Association of bacteriomes with drug susceptibility in lesions of pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Heliyon. 2024 Sep 6;10(18):e37583. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37583. eCollection 2024 Sep 30.

Authors

Weili Du¹, Yingli Zhao¹, Chen Zhang¹, Li Zhang¹, Lijuan Zhou¹, Zuyu Sun¹, Xiaojie Huang¹, Nana Zhang¹, Zichen Liu¹, Kun Li¹, Nanying Che¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Pathology, Beijing Key Laboratory for Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Research, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beiguandajie 9#, Tongzhou Dist, Beijing, 101149, China.

Abstract

Understanding how the bacteriomes in tuberculous lesions can be influenced by the susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) can provide valuable information for preventing and treating drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing was employed to analyze the bacteriome in pulmonary TB lesions from 14 patients with DR-TB and 47 patients with drug sensitive tuberculosis (DS-TB), along with 18 normal lung tissues (NT) from 18 lung cancer patients serving as the bacterial baseline. The phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states2 (PICRUSt2) algorithm was utilized to predict bacterial metabolic functions. The major phyla of pulmonary bacteriomes included Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Fusobacteria. Alpha diversity indices, including ACE, Chao1, Shannon and OTU observed, all demonstrated different bacterial communities of DS-TB samples from that of NT samples; while only Shannon indicated difference between DR-TB and NT samples. The analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) showed significantly different bacterial communities within TB lesions compared to NT samples (R = 0.418, p = 0.001). However, difference was not observed between DR-TB and DS-TB samples (ANOSIM, R = 0.069, p = 0.173). The bacterial profiles within each DR-TB individual appeared unique, with no obvious clusters corresponding to drug-resistant phenotypes. Nevertheless, indicator genera identified in DR-TB and DS-TB lesions demonstrated distinctive micro-ecological environments. Most COG functions were enriched in TB lesions, and the most significant one was [J] translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis. The distinct enrichment patterns of bacterial enzymes in DR-TB and DS-TB lesions suggest that pulmonary bacterial activities can be modulated by the susceptibility of MTB bacilli. This study provides fresh perspectives and strategies for the precise diagnosis and assessment of drug resistance tuberculosis.

Keywords: Bacterial metabolic functions; Drug susceptibility; Pulmonary bacteriomes; TB lesions.