Microbiome in N-ERD

The role of the microbiome in patients suffering from chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in its various forms is yet not fully understood. Here, we assessed the nasal microbiome, cytokine profile and clinical parameters in subjects with CRS with (CRSwNP) or without nasal polyps (CRSsNP) or with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD) as well as healthy controls (n=20 per group). Importantly, all patients refrained from taking corticosteroids 2 weeks prior to nasal sampling. We did not observe significant differences in diversity between any of these groups using two complementary alpha diversity indices. However, using pairwise abundance comparison we observed an increased relative abundance of Staphylococcus in the middle meatus and a decreased abundance of Corynebacterium in the anterior naris of N-ERD patients as compared to other patient groups. We further found a positive correlation of Staphylococci with IL-5 (Pearson r=0.548) and a negative correlation for Corynebacteria and Eotaxin-3 (r=-0.540). Thus, our data suggest a close association between increased bacterial colonization with Staphylococci and decreased colonization by Corynebacteria with increased type 2 inflammation as well as disease burden and provides further evidence for the close link between the nasal microbiome and its inflammatory environment in CRS. Sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project ID JMF-2102-04.