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Updated: Jul 11, 2025
Visualization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa within the Sputum of Cystic Fibrosis Patients
Published on: July 16, 2020
Visualization of the individual blood microbiome to study the etiology of sarcoidosis
Yordan Hodzhev1, Borislava Tsafarova1, Vladimir Tolchkov1
1Microbiology Department, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Yanko Sakazov 26 Blvd., Sofia 1504, Bulgaria.
Introduction:
Single microbial pathogens or host-microbiome dysbiosis are the causes of lung diseases with suspected infectious etiology. Metagenome sequencing provides an overview of the microbiome content. Due to the rarity of most granulomatous lung diseases collecting large systematic datasets is challenging. Thus, single-patient data often can only be summarized visually.
Objective:
To increase the information gain from a single-case metagenome analysis we suggest a quantitative and qualitative approach.
Results:
The 16S metagenomic results of 7 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis were compared with those of 22 healthy individuals. From lysed blood, total microbial DNA was extracted and sequenced. Cleaned data reads were identified taxonomically using Kraken 2 software. Individual metagenomic data were visualized with a Sankey diagram, Krona chart, and a heat-map. We identified five genera that were exclusively present or significantly enhanced in patients with sarcoidosis - Veillonella, Prevotella, Cutibacterium, Corynebacterium, and Streptococcus.
Conclusions:
Our approach can characterize the blood microbiome composition and diversity in rare diseases at an individual level. Investigation of the blood microbiome in patients with granulomatous lung diseases of unknown etiology, such as sarcoidosis could enhance our comprehension of their origin and pathogenesis and potentially uncover novel personalized therapeutics.
