Gut microbiome features are linked with wheeze frequency in children with asthma, suggesting an impact of the gut microbiome on morbidity in childhood asthma, according to a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Yang-Yu Liu, PhD, and colleagues analyzed the gut microbiome and metabolome of wheeze frequency in children with asthma. Bacterial 16s rRNA microbiome and untargeted metabolomic profiling were performed on fecal samples collected from 3-year-old children with parent-reported, physician-diagnosed asthma. The researchers analyzed wheeze frequency by calculating the proportion of quarterly questionnaires between ages 3 and 5 in which parents reported the child had wheezed (“wheeze proportion”). Specific taxa, including the genus Veillonella and histidine pathway metabolites, were enriched in those with high wheeze proportion. Among wheeze-associated taxa, Veillonella and Oscillospiraceae UCG-005, which was inversely associated with wheeze, were correlated with the greatest number of fecal metabolites. Microbial networks were similar between subjects with low vs high wheeze frequency.
