Alteration of the fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with Schistosoma japonicum infection

Schistosoma japonicum infection causes pathological injury to the host. Multiple studies have shown that intestinal helminth infection causes dysbiosis for the gut microbial community and impacts host immunology. However, the effect of acute S. japonicum infection on the gut microbiome structure (abundance and diversity) is still unclear. We collected fecal samples from healthy and infected patients from a single hospital in Hunan Province, China. The bacterial community was analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region using the HiSeq platform. Compared with healthy subjects, infected patients exhibited an increase in relative abundance of the TM7 phylum. At the genus level, there were seven differentially abundant genera between groups. The most significant finding was a Bacteroides enterotype in patients with acute schistosomiasis. These results suggest that S. japonicum infection has a significant effect on microbiome composition characterized by a higher abundance of the TM7 phylum and development of a Bacteroides enterotype.