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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Sec. Clinical and Diagnostic Microbiology and Immunology

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1562791

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Respiratory System Microbiome: Diversity, Function and HealthView all 8 articles

Early Bacterial Communities in the Lower Airways and Intestines of Caesarean Section Neonates with Respiratory Disease

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Longen Technology Group Co., Yunnan, China, kunming, China
  • 2Yan'an Hospital Affiliated To Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Introduction: Acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRTI) are one of the most severe diseases affecting neonates worldwide. Many bacterial pathogens that cause respiratory infections in neonates are common residents in the respiratory tract. Therefore, the aim is to determine the early bacterial community in the lower airways and intestines of neonates. Methods: Airway secretions, oral swabs, and fecal samples were collected from 19 neonates with acute respiratory tract infection and 2 control subjects. All three types of samples were amplified and sequenced using specific primer sets targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Results: Bacterial composition of the feces and airway secretions in the diseased neonates significantly differed from that of the neonates in the control group. The feces microbiota in the diseased neonates had accumulated Alcaligenaceae_ge and Enterococcus. The airway secretion microbiota of control and diseased neonates was mainly Alcaligenaceae_ge and Streptococcus, and Alcaligenaceae_ge was the most abundant genus in diseased neonates. In addition, the bacterial composition of the twins' neonates samples was more similar than that of other neonates. Discussion: Insight into the source and stability of microbiota in the neonatal period might elucidate health or susceptibility for developing a respiratory disease. Microbiota analysis also promises to complement the present means of detecting respiratory pathogens.

Keywords: Acute lower respiratory tract infection 1, Neonates 2, Airway secretion 3, Feces 4, bacterial community5

Received: 18 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Wang, Sun, Zhao, Lu, Ma, Chen, Xu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ke-Rong Li, ls238fet@163.com

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