Microbial keratitis is an infectious disease of the eye, in which the cornea is inflamed. Under severe conditions, keratitis can lead to significant loss of vision and enucleation of the eye. Ocular trauma is the major risk factor causing keratitis and microorganisms viz., bacteria, fungi, viruses are the causative agents. The current study characterized the conjunctival bacterial microbiomes of healthy individuals and individuals with bacterial keratitis (BK) and assessed whether ocular microbiome dysbiosis is prevalent in BK patients. Ocular bacterial microbiomes were generated from the conjunctival swabs of healthy controls (HC-SW) and conjunctival swabs (BK-SW) and corneal scrapings (BK-CR) of BK patients using V3–V4 amplicon sequencing and data analysed using QIIME and R software. The Alpha diversity indices, diversity and abundance of different phyla and genera, heat map analysis, NMDS plots and inferred functional pathway analysis clearly discriminated the bacterial microbiomes of conjunctival swabs of healthy controls from that of BK patients. Preponderance of negative interactions in the hub genera were observed in BK-CR and BK-SW compared to HC-SW. In addition, a consistent increase in the abundance of pathogenic bacteria, as inferred from published literature, was observed in the conjunctiva of BK patients compared to HC and this may be related to causing or exacerbating ocular surface inflammation. This is the first study demonstrating dysbiosis in the ocular bacterial microbiome of conjunctiva of bacterial keratitis patients compared to the eye of healthy controls. The bacterial microbiome associated with the corneal scrapings of keratitis individuals is also described for the first time.

微生物角膜炎是眼睛的一种感染性疾病，其中的角膜发炎。在严重的情况下，角膜炎可导致严重的视力丧失和眼球摘除。眼外伤是主要的风险因素引发角膜炎和微生物即……，细菌，真菌，病毒是病原体。当前的研究对健康个体和细菌性角膜炎（BK）个体的结膜细菌微生物组进行了特征分析，并评估了眼部微生物组营养不良在BK患者中是否普遍。使用V3–V4扩增子测序从健康对照的结膜拭子（HC-SW）和结膜拭子（BK-SW）和角膜刮擦（BK-CR）产生眼细菌微生物群，并使用QIIME和R软件分析数据。Alpha多样性指数，不同门和属的多样性和丰度，热图分析，NMDS图和推断的功能通路分析清楚地将健康对照者结膜拭子的细菌微生物群与BK患者区分开。与HC-SW相比，在BK-CR和BK-SW中观察到轮毂属中负向相互作用的优势。此外，与HC相比，在BK患者的结膜中观察到病原菌的丰度持续增加，正如从已发表的文献中推断的那样，这可能与引起或加剧眼表炎症有关。这是首次证明细菌性角膜炎患者结膜的眼部细菌性微生物组与健康对照者的眼睛相比存在菌群失调的研究。还首次描述了与角膜炎个体的角膜刮擦有关的细菌微生物组。与HC相比，在BK患者的结膜中观察到这种现象，这可能与引起或加剧眼表炎症有关。这是首次证明细菌性角膜炎患者结膜的眼部细菌性微生物组与健康对照者的眼睛相比存在菌群失调的研究。还首次描述了与角膜炎个体的角膜刮擦有关的细菌微生物组。与HC相比，在BK患者的结膜中观察到这种现象，这可能与引起或加剧眼表炎症有关。这是首次证明细菌性角膜炎患者结膜的眼部细菌性微生物组与健康对照者的眼睛相比存在菌群失调的研究。还首次描述了与角膜炎个体的角膜刮擦有关的细菌微生物组。