Gut Microbiome and Childhood Asthma

Gut microbiome features are associated with wheeze frequency in children with asthma, suggesting an impact of the gut microbiome on morbidity in childhood asthma, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

While the microbiome has an established role in asthma development, less is known about its contribution to morbidity in children with asthma.

Study Overview

In this ancillary study of the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial (VDAART), we analyzed the gut microbiome and metabolome of wheeze frequency in children with asthma. Bacterial 16s rRNA microbiome and untargeted metabolomic profiling were performed on faecal samples collected from three-year-old children with parent-reported physician-diagnosed asthma.

Researchers analyzed wheeze frequency by calculating the proportion of quarterly questionnaires between ages 3 and 5 years in which parents reported the child had wheezed ("wheeze proportion"). Taxa and metabolites associated with wheeze were analyzed by identifying log-fold. In children with asthma, intestinal Veillonella abundance was associated with more frequent wheeze and with numerous faecal metabolites, suggesting significant functional potential and clinical relevance of this genus.

Children with asthma who wheezed more often demonstrated a shift in their faecal metabolomic composition, including enrichment with histidine metabolites. Changes with respect to wheeze frequency and correlation/linear regression analyses, respectively. Microbe-metabolite and microbe-microbe correlation networks were compared between subjects with high and low wheeze proportions.

Results

• Specific taxa, including the genus Veillonella and histidine pathway metabolites, were enriched in subjects with high wheeze proportion.
• Amongst wheeze-associated taxa, Veillonella and Oscillospiraceae UCG-005, which was inversely associated with wheeze, were correlated with the greatest number of fecal metabolites.
• Microbial networks were similar between subjects with low vs. high wheeze frequency.

Thus, gut microbiome features are associated with wheeze frequency in children with asthma, suggesting an impact of the gut microbiome on morbidity in childhood asthma.

Reference

Association of the Gut Microbiome and Metabolome with Wheeze Frequency in Childhood Asthma by Kathleen Lee-Sarwar, et al. published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Read the full study