BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical and Diagnostic Microbiology and Immunology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1594460
This article is part of the Research TopicMucosal Microbiota Immunomodulation of the Gut-Lung AxisView all 10 articles
Enrichment of Prevotella melaninogenica in the Lower Respiratory Tract Links to Checkpoint Inhibitor Pneumonitis and Radiation Pneumonitis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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Background: Checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis (CIP) and radiation pneumonitis (RP) lead to anticancer therapy discontinuation and poor diagnosis. The human microbiome is related to various respiratory diseases. However, the role of the lung microbiome in CIP and RP remains unknown. Our study aimed to explore the lower respiratory tract (LRT) microbiome in CIP/RP patients. Methods: The study enrolled 61 patients with pneumonitis or pneumonia, including 23 with CIP/RP, and 38 with lung cancer with pneumonia (LC-P). Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) was performed to identify the microbiota in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and bioinformatics methods were used to compare the microbial differences between CIP/RP and LC-P groups. Correlation analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between LRT microbiota and clinical features. Results: The Prevotella was the dominant genus in both groups. The Prevotella melaninogenica, which belongs to the Prevotella genus, was the dominant species in the CIP/RP group and the second most abundant species in the LC-P group. Compared to the LC-P group, the CIP/RP group had significantly high levels of Prevotella melaninogenica species and lymphocyte percentage in BALF but significantly low levels of lymphocytes, eosinophils and albumin in peripheral blood. In addition, the Prevotella melaninogenica species had a negative correlation with peripheral blood lymphocytes. Conclusion: The enrichment of Prevotella melaninogenica species in LRT and a decreased level of peripheral blood lymphocytes are associated with CIP/RP.
Keywords: Lower respiratory tract, microbiome, Checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis, Radiation Pneumonitis, metagenomic next-generation sequencing
Received: 16 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Xu, Zhang, Zhang and Wu. 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: Xueling Wu, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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