Lung microbiome alterations in patients with anti-Jo1 antisynthetase syndrome and interstitial lung disease

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2023 Dec 5:13:1321315. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1321315. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Aim: To characterize the lung microbiome in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of patients with Antisynthetase Syndrome (ASSD) according to anti-Jo1 autoantibody positivity and evaluate the correlation with differential cell count and other bacterial genera in BALF.

Methods: We sequenced the 16S ribosomal RNA gene in the BALF of anti-Jo1-positive (JoP, n=6) and non-Jo1-positive (NJo, n=17) patients, and the differential cell count in BALF was evaluated. The Spearman's correlation was calculated for the quantitative variables and abundance of bacterial species.

Results: The Veillonella genus showed a significant decrease (p<0.01) in JoP (2.2%) in comparison to NJo (4.1%) patients. The correlation analysis showed several high (rho ≥ ± 0.7) and significant (p < 0.05) correlations. We analyzed the results obtained for the Veillonella genera and other study variables. The JoP group showed that the abundance of Veillonella had a high negative correlation with macrophages (rho = - 0.77) and a positive correlation with eosinophils (rho = 0.77), lymphocytes (rho = 0.77), and Prevotella (rho = 1).

Conclusions: The lung microbiome in ASSD patients differs and may affect cell composition, contributing to lung damage mechanisms. The presence of anti-Jo1 autoantibodies showed a low abundance of Veillonella. This genus had a strong and positive correlation with Prevotella abundance and levels of eosinophils and lymphocytes, and it showed a strong negative correlation with the percentage of macrophages.

Keywords: 16S ribosomal subunit; Veillonella; antisynthetase syndrome; interstitial lung disease; lung microbiome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Autoantibodies
  • Humans
  • Lung
  • Lung Diseases, Interstitial*
  • Myositis*

Substances

  • Autoantibodies

Supplementary concepts

  • Antisynthetase syndrome

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work is supported by the allocated budget to research (HLA Laboratory) from the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosío Villegas (INER).