Gut microbiota and protection from pneumococcal pneumonia

Dear Editor, We read with interest the work by Schuijt et al1 reporting that sustained treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics increases the susceptibility of mice to pneumococcal pneumonia, an effect that is reversed via faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Yet we question the authors' confidence that this effect is entirely attributable to alterations in gut microbiota. Antibiotic therapy, as used by the authors, alters the microbiota of the upper and lower respiratory tract.2 3 The authors used FMT to determine that the protective effect was due to gut microbiota, yet their protocol for FMT—oral gavage with faecal material—is also a direct manipulation of the microbiota of the upper respiratory tract. Differences in respiratory microbiota correlate strongly with alterations in the abundance and behaviour of alveolar inflammatory cells.4 5 We thus wonder why the authors conclude that the effects of antibiotics and...

Source: Gut - January 5, 2017 Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Dickson, R. P., Cox, M. J. Tags: PostScript Source Type: research