The upper respiratory tract microbiota of healthy adults is affected by Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage, smoking habits and contact with children

We investigated the composition of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal microbiota of healthy adults focusing on the effect of pneumococcal carriage, smoking habits and contact with children. We designed a case-control study which included 12 individuals previously identified as pneumococcal carriers and 47 individuals previously identified as pneumococcal non-carriers. Three samples from each individual were analyzed. Samples were collected over a time period spanning a maximum of 6 months. V4 16S rRNA gene sequencing was done for nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal paired samples (177 each) and data were analyzed.

本研究针对健康成人的鼻咽部与口咽部微生物群组成展开探究，重点关注肺炎链球菌携带状态、吸烟习惯及儿童接触史的影响。本研究采用病例对照研究设计，纳入此前已确诊为肺炎链球菌携带者的12名受试者，以及47名肺炎链球菌非携带者。每名受试者均采集三份样本并进行分析，样本采集周期最长跨度达6个月。研究对鼻咽部与口咽部配对样本（每组各177份）开展V4区16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）基因测序，并对测序数据进行分析。