Characterization of the gut microbiota of Kawasaki disease patients by a follow-up study with metagenomic analysis

川崎病(KD)是一种儿童早期急性发热性疾病。以前的报告表明，与疾病易感性相关的遗传因素，以及作为触发因素的感染源，可能与KD有关；然而，KD的确切病因仍不清楚。此外，以前基于培养实验的研究表明，肠道微生物区系在KD发病机制中可能起到作用。在这项研究中，我们使用元基因组学综合分析了28名KD患者肠道微生物区系的纵向变化。细菌种类分类表明，测序结果与6株链球菌相似。在急性期明显升高。我们的研究结果表明，急性期KD患者的肠道微生物区系存在微生态失调，并且链球菌的数量显著增加。可能与KD的发病机制有关。

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile illness of early childhood. Previous reports have suggested that genetic factors associated with disease susceptibility, together with an infectious agent as a trigger, could be involved in KD; however, the precise etiology of KD remains unknown. Additionally, previous studies based on culture experiments have suggested a possible role for intestinal microbiota in KD pathogenesis. In this study, we used metagenomics to comprehensively analyze the longitudinal variation within the intestinal microbiota of twenty-eight KD patients. Bacterial species classification suggested that the sequencing reads assigned as similar to six Streptococcus spp. were apparently increased in the acute phase. Our findings suggest that dysbiosis was present in the intestinal microbiota of acute-phase KD patients and that a marked increase in Streptococcus spp. could be associated with KD pathogenesis.