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. 2020 May 13;8(5):731.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8050731.

Nasal Microbiota in RSV Bronchiolitis

Serena Schippa  1 , Antonella Frassanito  2 , Massimiliano Marazzato  1 , Raffaella Nenna  2 , Laura Petrarca  2 , Bruna Neroni  1 , Giulia Bonfiglio  1 , Francesca Guerrieri  3 , Federica Frasca  4 , Giuseppe Oliveto  4 , Alessandra Pierangeli  4 , Fabio Midulla  2
Affiliations

Nasal Microbiota in RSV Bronchiolitis

Serena Schippa et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the leading cause of bronchiolitis, and the severity may be influenced by the bacterial ecosystem. Our aim was to analyze the nasal microbiota from 48 infants affected by bronchiolitis from RSV virus and 28 infants with bronchiolitis but negative for the virus. Results showed a significantly lower biodiversity in the RSV-positive group with respect to the RSV-negative group, a specific microbial profile associated with the RSV-positive group different from that observed in the negative group, and significant modifications in the relative abundance of taxa in the RSV-positive group, as well as in the RSV-A group, with respect to the negative group. Furthermore, microbial network analyses evidenced, in all studied groups, the presence of two predominant sub-networks characterized by peculiar inter- and intra-group correlation patterns as well as a general loss of connectivity among microbes in the RSV-positive group, particularly in the RSV-A group. Our results indicated that infants with more severe bronchiolitis disease, caused by RSV-A infection, present significant perturbations of both the nasal microbiota structure and the microbial relationships. Patients with a milder bronchiolitis course (RSV-B-infected and patients who have cleared the virus) presented less severe alterations.

Keywords: biodiversity; bronchiolitis; discriminant species; microbe interactions; microbial networks analyses; microbiota; respiratory syncytial virus; taxa abundance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Analysis of microbial biodiversity. (a) Evaluation of Shannon index, Simpson index, and number of observed OTUs among groups. P values assessing statistical significance were also reported. (b) PCoA analysis performed for β diversity based on the Bray–Curtis measure of dissimilarity. For each principal coordinate, the percentage of variance explained is reported between parentheses.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Color-coded bar plot showing the average distribution of bacterial taxa at phylum, genus, and species level across different groups. Only taxa for which a mean relative abundance ≥0.5% was determined in at least one group are shown. Taxa are sorted in ascending order with respect to their mean relative abundance in the Vneg group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Color-coded bar plot showing differential abundance analysis at genus and species levels performed by Mann–Whitney U tests. * p value ≤ 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Co-occurrence network analysis. Graphical representations of (a) virus-negative and (b) RSVpos networks, computed at species level performed on taxa with a mean relative abundance ≥0.5% in at least one group. The thickness of edges represents the level of association between taxa based on the SparCC score. The size of nodes is proportional to the number of edges departing from the node, indicating its degree of interaction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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