Lung microbiome in children with hematological malignancies and lower respiratory tract infections

Background: Respiratory infectious complications remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children with hematological malignancies. Knowledge regarding the lung microbiome in the aforementioned children is limited.
Methods: A prospective cohort was conducted, enrolling 16 children with hematological malignancies complicated with moderate to severe lower respiratory tract infections(LRTIs), versus 21 LRTIs children with age, gender, weight, infection severity matched, with no underlying malignancies, to evaluate the lung microbiome from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples in different groups.
Results: Lung microbiome from children with hematological malignancies and LRTIs showed obviously decreased α and β diversity, increased microbial function in infectious disease:bacteria/parasite, drug resistance:antimicrobial and human pathogenesis than the control group, and significantly reduced proportion of Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota , increased Proteobacteria at the ...