Gut microbiome is associated with wheeze frequency in childhood asthma

Published: February 19, 2022

The human microbiome refers to the collective genomic contents of microbes resident on or in the human body, and the gut contains the most numerous and diverse microbes. The gut microbiome now has established impact on human health and diseases, with well-known associations with the risk of developing asthma. Yet less is known about whether the gut microbiome also impacts disease severity in existing asthma.

In a recent article in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), Lee-Sarwar and colleagues investigated associations of gut microbes and metabolites with childhood asthma severity using data from the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial (VDAART). The study authors analyzed gut microbiome data using 16S rRNA gene sequencing in stool samples collected at age 3 years from 110 children with asthma, and also measured metabolites in the stool samples using mass spectrometry. The children were followed until they turned 5 years old with quarterly questionnaires where parents reported whether the child had wheezed, and the main outcome of interest, “wheeze proportion,” was defined by the proportion of questionnaires where the child had reported wheezed.

Specific microbes, including those belonging to the genus Veillonella, were increased in stool samples of children who wheezed more frequently over the following two years. Children with asthma could be clustered into one of two groups based on the metabolites in their stool samples, and one of these clusters was associated with more frequent wheeze. In particular, histidine metabolites were higher in children with more frequent wheeze.

These findings suggest that the gut microbiome directs not only risk of asthma inception, but could modify the severity of asthma once it has developed during childhood. While our findings require replication in independent cohorts, they could ultimately form the basis of novel strategies targeting the microbiome in the treatment of childhood asthma.
 
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) is an official scientific journal of the AAAAI, and is the most-cited journal in the field of allergy and clinical immunology.

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