Exploring the link between airway microbiota and coronary heart disease in COPD patients and controls

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and coronary heart disease (CHD) are major causes of morbidity and mortality, with shared risk factors and often co-occurring. This study investigated the association between both the upper and lower airway microbiome and CHD in healthy controls and COPD patients.
Methods: 228 participants from the MicroCOPD study (101 controls and 127 COPD patients) underwent coronary CT angiography to assess calcium score (CaSc) and coronary stenosis. Oral wash (OW) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples were collected. Microbial DNA was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing with the Illumina MiSeq platform. Microbiome composition and diversity were analyzed using established pipelines in Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology 2 (QIIME 2) and R.
Results: Firmicutes dominated across all subgroups, followed by Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. Several taxa were found to be differentially abundant between CHD and non-CHD groups but compri..., , # Exploring the link between airway microbiota and coronary heart disease in COPD patients and controls

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.vq83bk46x](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk46x)

## Description of the data and file structure

Christina Due Svendsen 29 October 2025, Bergen, Norway

## Files and variables

The phyloseq object (“`pseq.rds`”) also consists of:

* taxonomy: .qza format. ASV IDs created by DADA2 were assigned taxonomy using a classifier and the UNITE database with     clustering at 99% thershold level. Reads derived from sequencing of the ITS 1 were considered. The taxonomic annotations in this file were imported into the phyloseq object pseq found in poses.rds.
* feature data: .qza format. A QIIME2 artifact representing the processed ASV table and linked sequence IDs. These ASV IDs are the same identifiers used in pseq.rds.
* metadata: .dta format. Contains information on each sample including study group, sample type etc. It is also provided inside pseq.rds formatted..., Included study participants agreed to anonymized publication of their data. All subject data uploaded is anonymized, to the degree that not all analyses published can be reproduced 100%.