Examining the gut microbial community and genes in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that experience different levels of change in serum asparaginase activity during pegaspargase treatment

Asparaginase is an effective treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Changes in asparaginase activity may lead to suboptimal treatment and poorer outcomes. The gut microbiome produces metabolites that could impact asparaginase therapy, however remains uninvestigated. We examined gut-microbial community and microbial-asparaginase and asparagine synthetase genes using 16SrRNA and metagenomic sequence data from stool samples of pediatric ALL patients. Comparing ASNase activity between consecutive asparaginase-doses we found microbial communities differed between decreased- and increased-activity samples.