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. 2023 Jul;38(7):2117-2123.
doi: 10.1007/s00467-022-05844-3. Epub 2022 Dec 22.

Uromycobiome in infants and toddlers with and without urinary tract infections

Catherine S Forster  1 , Hui Liu  2 , Marcia Kurs-Lasky  2 , Wendy Ullmer  3   4 , Janina A Krumbeck  3   4 , Nader Shaikh  2
Affiliations

Uromycobiome in infants and toddlers with and without urinary tract infections

Catherine S Forster et al. Pediatr Nephrol. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: The bacterial components of the urobiome have been described in children, both with and without urinary tract infections (UTI). However, less is known about the pediatric uromycobiome: the community of fungi in the urine. The objectives of this study were to describe the uromycobiome in children and determine whether the uromycobiome differs between children with and without UTI.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of febrile children less than 3 years of age who presented to the Emergency Department and had a catheterized urine sample sent as part of clinical care. We obtained residual urine for use in this study and identified components of the uromyobiome through amplification and sequencing of the fungal ITS2 region. We then compared the uromycobiome between those with and without UTI.

Results: We included 374 children in this study (UTI = 50, no UTI = 324). Fungi were isolated from urine samples of 310 (83%) children. Fungi were identified in a higher proportion of children with UTI, compared to those without UTI (96% vs. 81%, p = 0.01). Shannon diversity index was higher in children with UTI, compared to those without (p = 0.04). Although there were differences in the most abundant taxa between children with and without UTI, there was no significant difference in beta diversity between groups.

Conclusions: Fungi were detected in the majority of catheterized urine samples from children. While a higher proportion of children with UTI had fungi in their urine, compared to children without UTI, there was no difference in the composition of these groups. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.

Keywords: Children; Fungi; Urinary tract infections; Urine microbiome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: Two authors (JK and WU) are consultants for Pangea Laboratory. The remainder of the authors do not have any conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Average relative abundance of components of the uromycobiome between children with and without a urinary tract infection
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alpha diversity analysis of the sample set as measured as (A) Richness, (B) Chao1, (C) Evenness, and (D) Shannon Diversity Index of the uromycobiome of children with and without a UTI. Panel A shows richness, which is an unadjusted (or “raw”) count of the number of taxa within a sample. Panel B shows Chao1, a parameter that is often used in sample with low biomass such as urine, is an adjusted measure that estimates abundance of taxa. Panel C shows evenness, which reflects whether or not each taxa is equally represented in a sample. Panel D shows the Shannon Diversity Index, a measure that is used to quantify how many different taxa are within a sample.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Beta diversity of the uromycobiome of children with and without UTI
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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