The following is a summary of “Alterations of nasal microbiome in eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis,” published in the MAY 2023 issue of Allergy & Immunology by Liang, et al.

The nasal microbiome, which refers to the community of microorganisms in the nasal cavity, may play a role in developing chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). However, the association between the nasal microbiota and eosinophilic CRS with nasal polyps (eCRSwNP) has yet to be studied. For a study, researchers sought to thoroughly characterize nasal dysbiosis in patients with eCRSwNP and compare their nasal microbiomes to those of healthy controls (HCs).

A cross-sectional study involved 34 patients with eCRSwNP, ten patients without CRSwNP, and 44 HCs. They utilized 16S rRNA gene sequencing to analyze the nasal microbiomes. An independent cohort of 14 patients with eCRSwNP, nine patients without CRSwNP, and 11 HCs was used to validate the findings.

The nasal microbiome of patients with eCRSwNP exhibited higher α-diversity, as indicated by the Shannon and Chao1 indexes, and had a distinct composition of microbes compared to HCs. Importantly, the differences in microbial composition between patients with eCRSwNP and HCs were significantly associated with eCRSwNP. A diagnostic model based on these differences successfully distinguished patients with eCRSwNP from HCs using a combination of 15 genera. The model achieved an area under the curve of approximately 0.8 in both the exploration and validation cohorts.

The study provided insights into the compositional changes in the nasal microbiome associated with eCRSwNP. The findings suggested that the nasal microbiota could serve as a noninvasive predictive classifier for diagnosing eCRSwNP. Further research in this area may lead to improved understanding and management of eCRSwNP.

Source: jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(23)00140-9/fulltext