Background

Bacterial exposure from house dust has been associated with asthma and atopy in children but whether these relationships are present in adults remains unclear.

Objective

We sought to examine associations of house dust microbiota with adult asthma, atopy, and hay fever.

Methods

Vacuumed bedroom dust samples from the homes of 879 participants (average age, 62 years) in the Agricultural Lung Health Study, a case-control study of asthma nested within a farming cohort, were subjected to 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize bacterial communities. We defined current asthma and hay fever using questionnaires and current atopy by blood specific IgE level > 0.70 IU/mL to 1 or more of 10 common allergens. We used linear regression to examine whether overall within-sample bacterial diversity differed by outcome, microbiome regression-based kernel association test to evaluate whether between-sample bacterial community compositions differed by outcome, and analysis of composition of microbiomes to identify differentially abundant bacterial taxa.

Results

Overall diversity of bacterial communities in house dust was similar by asthma status but was lower (P < .05) with atopy or hay fever. Many individual bacterial taxa were differentially abundant (false-discovery rate, <0.05) by asthma, atopy, or hay fever. Several taxa from Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Fusobacteria were more abundant with asthma, atopy, or hay fever. In contrast, several taxa from Firmicutes were more abundant in homes of individuals with adequately controlled asthma (vs inadequately controlled asthma), individuals without atopy, or individuals without hay fever.

Conclusions

Microbial composition of house dust may influence allergic outcomes in adults.

中文翻译：

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美国农业人口中与成人哮喘和特应性相关的屋尘微生物群

背景

屋尘中的细菌暴露与儿童哮喘和特应性过敏有关，但这些关系是否存在于成人中仍不清楚。

客观的

我们试图检查屋尘微生物群与成人哮喘、特应性和花粉热的关系。

方法

农业肺健康研究是一项嵌套在农业队列中的哮喘病例对照研究，对来自 879 名参与者（平均年龄 62 岁）家中的真空卧室灰尘样本进行 16S rRNA 扩增子测序以表征细菌群落。我们使用问卷和当前特应性定义当前的哮喘和花粉热，通过血液特异性 IgE 水平 > 0.70 IU/mL 到 10 种常见过敏原中的 1 种或更多。我们使用线性回归来检查样本内的整体细菌多样性是否因结果而异，基于微生物组回归的核关联检验来评估样本间细菌群落组成是否因结果而异，并分析微生物组的组成以确定差异丰富的细菌类群。

结果

室内灰尘中细菌群落的总体多样性与哮喘状态相似，但在 特应性或花粉热时较低 ( P < .05)。许多个体细菌类群因哮喘、特应性或花粉热而差异丰富（错误发现率，<0.05）。来自蓝细菌、拟杆菌和梭杆菌的几个分类群更富含哮喘、特应性或花粉热。相比之下，厚壁菌门的几个分类群在哮喘得到充分控制（与哮喘控制不充分）、没有特应性反应的个体或没有花粉热的个体的家庭中更为丰富。

结论

屋尘中的微生物成分可能会影响成人的过敏结果。