Polymicrobial airway bacterial communities in adult bronchiectasis patients

Paul Purcell, Hannah Jary, Audrey Perry, John D Perry, Christopher J Stewart, Andrew Nelson, Clare Lanyon, Darren L Smith, Stephen P Cummings, Anthony De Soyza

Chronic airway infection contributes to the underlying pathogenesis of non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFBr). In contrast to other chronic airway infections, associated with COPD and CF bronchiectasis, where polymicrobial communities have been implicated in lung damage due to the vicious circle of recurrent bacterial infections and inflammation, there is sparse information on the composition of bacterial communities in NCFBr. Seventy consecutive patients were recruited from an outpatient adult NCFBr clinic. Bacterial communities in sputum samples were analysed by culture and pyrosequencing approaches. Bacterial sequences were analysed using partial least square discrimination analyses to investigate trends in community composition and identify those taxa that contribute most to community variation.