Long-Term Effects of Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment on Gut Microbiota and Its Health Consequences

Gut microbiota dysbiosis has adverse health effects on human body. Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment uses a variety of antibiotics typically for more than 20 months, which may induce gut microbiota dysbiosis. The aim of this study is to investigate the long-term effects of MDR-TB treatment on human gut microbiota and its related health consequences. A total of 76 participants were recruited at a hospital in Linyi, China. The study included one active MDR-TB treatment group, one recovered group from MDR-TB and two treatment-naive tuberculosis groups as control. The two treatment-naïve tuberculosis groups were constructed to match the sex and the age of the active MDR-TB treatment and the recovered group, respectively. The fecal and blood samples were collected and analyzed for gut microbiota and metabolic parameters. An altered gut microbiota community and a loss of richness were observed during the MDR-TB treatment. Strikingly, 3–8 years after recovery and discontinuing the treatment, the gut microbiota still exhibited an altered taxonomic composition (p = 0.001) and a 16% decrease in richness (p = 0.018) compared to the gut microbiota before the treatment. The abundance of fifty-eight bacterial genera was significantly changed in the MDR-TB recovered group versus the untreated control group. Although there were persistent and pervasive gut microbiota alterations, no gastrointestinal symptom such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, flatulence, and constipation was observed in the recovered group. However, chronic disorders may be indicated by the elevated level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) (p = 0.034) and total cholesterol (TC) (p = 0.017). These adverse lipid changes were associated with the altered gut bacterial taxa, including phylum Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobia and genera Adlercreutzia, Akkermansia, Butyricicoccus, Coprococcus, Clostridioides, Eubacterium, Erysipelatoclostridium, Fusicatenibacter, Klebsiella, Psychrobacter, and Streptococcus. Collectively, MDR-TB treatment induced a lasting gut microbiota dysbiosis, which was associated with unfavorable changes in lipid profile.