The Eradication of Helicobacter pylori Was Significantly Associated with Compositional Patterns of Orointestinal Axis Microbiota

Sally Ali Tawfik; Marwa Azab; Mohammed Ramadan; Sarah Shabayek; Ali Abdellah; Sultan S Al Thagfan; Mohammed Salah

doi:10.3390/pathogens12060832

The Eradication of Helicobacter pylori Was Significantly Associated with Compositional Patterns of Orointestinal Axis Microbiota

Pathogens. 2023 Jun 15;12(6):832. doi: 10.3390/pathogens12060832.

Authors

Sally Ali Tawfik¹, Marwa Azab¹, Mohammed Ramadan², Sarah Shabayek¹, Ali Abdellah¹, Sultan S Al Thagfan³, Mohammed Salah⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt.
³ Department of Clinical and Hospital Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Al Madinah Al Munaearah 42353, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Port Said University, Port Said 42511, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is significantly linked to various diseases that seriously impact human health, such as gastric ulcers, chronic gastritis and gastric adenocarcinoma.

Methods: The compositional shifts in bacterial communities of the orointestinal axis were surveyed pre/post-eradication of H. pylori. In total, 60 samples, including stool and salivary specimens, were collected from 15 H. pylori-positive individuals (HPP) before beginning and 2 months after receiving the eradication therapy. The V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene were sequenced using MiSeq.

Results: Overall, oral microbiomes were collectively more diverse than the gut microbiomes (Kruskal-Wallis; p = 3.69 × 10^-5). Notably, the eradication of H. pylori was associated with a significant reduction in the bacterial diversity along the orointestinal axis (Wilcoxon rank sum test; p = 6.38 × 10^-3). Interestingly, the oral microbiome of HPP showed a positive correlation between Proteobacteria and Fusobacteria, in addition to a significant predominance of Streptococcus, in addition to Eubacterium_eligens, Haemophilus, Ruminococcaceae, Actinomyces and Staphylococcus. On the other hand, Fusobacterium, Veillonella, Catenibacterium, Neisseria and Prevotella were significantly enriched upon eradication of H. pylori. Generally, Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria positively coexisted during H. pylori infection along the orointestinal axis (r = 0.67; p = 0.0006). The eradication of H. pylori was positively linked to two distinctive orotypes (O3 and O4). Orotype O4 was characterized by a robust abundance of Veillonella and Fusobacteria. The gut microbiomes during H. pylori infection showed a remarkable predominance of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 and Escherichia_Shigella. Likewise, Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium were significantly enriched upon eradication of H. pylori.

Conclusions: Finally, the impact of eradication therapy clearly existed on the representation of certain genera, especially in the oral microbiome, which requires particular concern in order to counteract and limit their subsequent threats.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Helicobacter pylori eradication; gut microbiota; orointestinal axis.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.