Microbiome patterns analysis of Tuberculosis, Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria and other respiratory patients

Tuberculosis (TB) and non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections, though clinically similar, require distinct management, highlighting the need for reliable biomarkers to differentiate them. In a study of 108 patients, 16S rRNA sequencing revealed distinct microbial signatures, with Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus mutans, and Snodgrassella alvi associated with TB, and Cardiobacterium hominis and Prevotella nigrescens linked to NTM. The absence of Mobiluncus curtisii, particularly with Olsenella phocaeensis also absent, suggested a higher probability of NTM, offering promising insights for diagnostic and therapeutic advancements. Overall design: Total 38 patients with TB, 29 NTM, and 41 others samples were analyzed. All patients were selected by the Pulmonology Department at the Korea University Guro Hospital to undergo bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) collection for diagnostic purposes. 16S metagenomics sequencing was performed on 108 samples. The raw 16S amplicon sequences were processed by QIIME2 v1.8.0 with default parameters. Then, we obtained the abundance corresponding to each taxon.