Gut microbiome dysbiosis and correlation with blood biomarkers in active-tuberculosis in endemic setting

Study information

Needs review

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

33481833

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1371/journal.pone.0245534

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Khaliq A, Ravindran R, Afzal S, Jena PK, Akhtar MW, Ambreen A, Wan YY, Malik KA, Irfan M, Khan IH

Journal

PloS one

Year

2021

Tuberculosis (TB) is the largest infectious disease with 10 million new active-TB patients and1.7 million deaths per year. Active-TB is an inflammatory disease and is increasingly viewed as an imbalance of immune responses to M. tb. infection. The mechanisms of a switch from latent infection to active disease is not well worked out but a shift in the immune responses is thought to be responsible. Increasingly, the role of gut microbiota has been described as a major influencer of the immune system. And because the gut is the largest immune organ, we aimed to analyze the gut microbiome in active-TB patients in a TB-endemic country, Pakistan. The study revealed that Ruminococcacea, Enetrobactericeae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Bifidobacterium, etc. were the major genera associated with active-TB, also associated with chronic inflammatory disease. Plasma antibody profiles against several M. tb. antigens, as specific biomarkers for active-TB, correlated closely with the patient gut microbial profiles. Besides, bcoA gene copy number, indicative of the level of butyrate production by the gut microbiome was five-fold lower in TB patients compared to healthy individuals. These findings suggest that gut health in TB patients is compromised, with implications for disease morbidity (e.g., severe weight loss) as well as immune impairment.

Experiment 1

Edit History Delete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submittedDuplicate this Experiment Add a new Signature

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/07/24

Curator: Nuerteye

Revision editor(s): Nuerteye

Subjects

Location of subjects: Pakistan

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Sputum , Blood Expectoration,Sputum,sputum,Portion of blood,Vertebrate blood,Whole blood,Blood,blood

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Pulmonary tuberculosis lung TB,lung tuberculosis,pulmonary TB,pulmonary tuberculosis,Tuberculosis, Pulmonary,Pulmonary tuberculosis

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Healthy

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: TB patients

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: patients are screened by chest x-ray (CXR) and acid-fast bacilli sputum smear microscopy (AFB microscopy) for two consecutive samples (spot and early morning). Patients positive for AFB smear for at least one sample are considered positive (AFB+)

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 40

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 42

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: LEfSe

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: increased

Signature 1

Edit History Delete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/07/24

Curator: Nuerteye

Revision editor(s): Nuerteye

Source: Figure 3

Description: Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) of the top 25 significant families and/or genera in active-TB patients and healthy individuals.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in TB patients

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Actinomyces
Bifidobacterium
Blautia
Bulleidia
Burkholderia
Catenibacterium
Clostridium
Collinsella
Coriobacteriaceae
Dorea
Eggerthella
Enterobacteriaceae
Erysipelotrichaceae
Eubacterium
Faecalibacterium
Lachnospiraceae
Ruminococcus
Slackia
Streptococcus
TM7-3TM7-3
Lachnospiraceae bacterium
RuminococcaceaeRuminococcaceae

Revision editor(s): Nuerteye

Signature 2

Edit History Delete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/07/24

Curator: Nuerteye

Revision editor(s): Nuerteye

Source: Figure 3

Description: Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) of the top 25 significant families and/or genera in active-TB patients and healthy individuals.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in TB patients

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
BacteroidetesBacteroidetes
Prevotella
SuccinovibrioSuccinovibrio
Dialister
Mitsuokella
Alpha BifidobacteriumAlpha Bifidobacterium
Veillonellaceae
Elusimicrobiaceae
CyanobacteriaCyanobacteria
RF32RF32
Erysipelotrichaceae
Sutterella
Barnesiellaceae
RF39RF39
Veillonellaceae bacterium
Roseburia
Acidaminococcus
ParaprevotellaceaeParaprevotellaceae

Revision editor(s): Nuerteye