Respiratory eukaryotic virome expansion and bacteriophage deficiency characterize childhood asthma

Megremis, S. et al. (2023) Respiratory eukaryotic virome expansion and bacteriophage deficiency characterize childhood asthma. Scientific Reports, 13, 8319. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34730-7) (PMID:37221274) (PMCID:PMC10205716)

Abstract

Asthma development and exacerbation is linked to respiratory virus infections. There is limited information regarding the presence of viruses during non-exacerbation/infection periods. We investigated the nasopharyngeal/nasal virome during a period of asymptomatic state, in a subset of 21 healthy and 35 asthmatic preschool children from the Predicta cohort. Using metagenomics, we described the virome ecology and the cross-species interactions within the microbiome. The virome was dominated by eukaryotic viruses, while prokaryotic viruses (bacteriophages) were independently observed with low abundance. Rhinovirus B species consistently dominated the virome in asthma. Anelloviridae were the most abundant and rich family in both health and asthma. However, their richness and alpha diversity were increased in asthma, along with the co-occurrence of different Anellovirus genera. Bacteriophages were richer and more diverse in healthy individuals. Unsupervised clustering identified three virome profiles that were correlated to asthma severity and control and were independent of treatment, suggesting a link between the respiratory virome and asthma. Finally, we observed different cross-species ecological associations in the healthy versus the asthmatic virus-bacterial interactome, and an expanded interactome of eukaryotic viruses in asthma. Upper respiratory virome “dysbiosis” appears to be a novel feature of pre-school asthma during asymptomatic/non-infectious states and merits further investigation.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The study acquired funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme CURE under grant agreement No 767015, and the European FP7-Health programme PREDICTA under Grant agreement ID: 260895. CURE: “Constructing a ‘Eubiosis Reinstatement Therapy’ for Asthma”. PREDICTA: “Post-infectious immune reprogramming and its association with persistence and chronicity of respiratory allergic diseases”.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Robertson, Professor David
• Authors: Megremis, S., Constantinides, B., Xepapadaki, P., Yap, C. F., Sotiropoulos, A. G., Bachert, C., Finotto, S., Jartti, T., Tapinos, A., Vuorinen, T., Andreakos, E., Robertson, D. L., and Papadopoulos, N. G.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 13: 8319
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14381837