Gut uropathogen abundance is a risk factor for development of bacteriuria and urinary tract infection. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The origin of most bacterial infections in the urinary tract is often presumed to be the gut. Herein, we investigate the relationship between the gut microbiota and future development of bacteriuria and urinary tract infection (UTI). We perform gut microbial profiling using 16S rRNA gene deep sequencing on 510 fecal specimens from 168 kidney transplant recipients and metagenomic sequencing on a subset of fecal specimens and urine supernatant specimens. We report that a 1% relative gut abundance of Escherichia is an independent risk factor for Escherichia bacteriuria and UTI and a 1% relative gut abundance of Enterococcus is an independent risk factor for Enterococcus bacteriuria. Strain analysis establishes a close strain level alignment between species found in the gut and in the urine in the same subjects. Our results support a gut microbiota-UTI axis, suggesting that modulating the gut microbiota may be a potential novel strategy to prevent UTIs.

publication date

  • December 4, 2019

Research

keywords

  • Bacteria
  • Bacterial Infections
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Urinary Tract Infections

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC6893017

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85075969257

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1126/scitranslmed.aap9489

PubMed ID

  • 31797927

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 10

issue

  • 1