Evaluation of gut microbial diversity and correlation in asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with hand, foot and mouth disease

Abstract

Abstract With the proposal of the concept of "metagenomics" and the development of sequencing technology, 16S rRNA gene profiling has been widely applied in the survey of microbial diversity. This study explored the gut microbiota of children with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). We enrolled 24 cases with asymptomatic and symptomatic HFMD from January 2022 to October 2022 at a median age of three years. The controls were 19 healthy children of a similar age who underwent routine health examinations at the hospital during the same period. Gut microbiota was analyzed using high throughput 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid sequencing (16S rRNA sequencing). The gut microbiota, both in asymptomatic and symptomatic HFMD patients, was distinct from the controls. Compared with the controls, the composition of gut microbiota in the HFMD cases represented a significant difference. The dysbiosis of gut microbiota of the HFMD cases included a reduction of butyrate-producing bacteria and an up-regulation of inflammation-inducing bacteria. These may have impaired the intestinal biological mucosal barrier and host immune functions, promoting the invasion of the enterovirus. In this study, aiming to preliminarily evaluate the characteristics of the diversity in the intestinal flora of patients with severe pneumonia, which can help to formulate new preventive and therapeutic strategies.