Characterization of the gut microbiota of Kawasaki disease patients by metagenomic analysis

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26460542
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Bacteriology (including mycology)
• Research Institution: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• Principal Investigator: Kuroda Makoto 国立感染症研究所, 病原体ゲノム解析研究センター, センター長 (80317411)
• Research Collaborator: OBA Kunihiro 公立昭和病院, 小児科, 医長 ; HAMADA Hiromichi 東京女子医大八千代医療センター, 小児科 ; SEKIZUKA Tsuyoshi 国立感染症研究所, 病原体ゲノム解析研究センター, 室長
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 川崎病 / レンサ球菌 / メタゲノム解析 / 腸内フローラ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile illness of early childhood. Additionally, previous culture-based studies have suggested a possible role of intestinal microbiota in KD pathogenesis. In this study, we performed metagenomic analysis to comprehensively assess the longitudinal variation in the intestinal microbiota of 28KD patients. Several notable bacterial genera were commonly extracted during the acute phase, whereas a relative increase in the number of Ruminococcus bacteria was observed during the non-acute phase of KD. The metagenomic analysis results based on bacterial species classification suggested that the number of sequencing reads with similarity to five Streptococcus spp. (S. pneumonia, pseudopneumoniae, oralis, gordonii, and sanguinis), in addition to patient-derived Streptococcus isolates, markedly increased during the acute phase in most patients. The findings of this study suggest that KD-related Streptococci might be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease.

Free Research Field

ゲノム微生物学