Insights into gut microbiome and its functional pathways in asthma patients through high-throughput sequencing.

Aim: To describe gut microbiome and functional genes of asthma. Patients & methods: Fecal microbiome in controls, asthma patients with and without inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment was determined. Results: Patients with ICS had lower abundance of Alloprevotella, unclassified_f_Lachnospiraceae and Lachnospiraceae_NC2004_group, higher abundance of Sutterella and Sphingomonas than patients without ICS. In all the asthma patients, there are microbial differences in aging distribution, different gender and different asthmatic phenotypes. Asthma patients without ICS treatment had more microbial genes related to geraniol degradation, ethylbenzene degradation and bladder cancer than controls; 15 pathways showed significant difference between asthma patients with and without ICS treatment. Conclusion: We found gut dysbiosis in asthma and different functional pathways associated with both asthma and ICS.