Journal Club: Short term antibiotic effects on gut microbiome in Indian preschoolers- A 16S rRNA analysis

Antibiotic use is associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiome. With this in mind, the current objective of this study was to investigate the effect of antibiotics on gut composition in children aged 3–5 years receiving antibiotics compared to children who did not receive antibiotics.

A total of 54 participants aged 3–5 years were included in this multi-centric cohort study. Participants were divided into two equal groups, first was the treatment-experienced group with 27 participants given antibiotic coverage and second was the treatment-not-experienced group with 27 participants and non-antibiotic coverage ones. Stool samples of study participants were collected on days 0 and 5 and analyzed using 16Svedberg ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequencing.

The results showed that a non-significant increase in the mean abundance of the Phyla Bacteroidota, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Verrucomicrobiota was observed in both groups from day 0 to day 5. A significant abundance of genus Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcaceae, and Lactobacillaceae was observed in the participants with antibiotic treatment. The relative abundance of families Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Sellimonas, Ruminococcus, Torques, and Eggerthella groups was observed to be significantly higher in participants with antibiotic treatment.

Therefore, it was finally concluded that a short-term course of 5 days of antibiotic usage is associated with altered microbial abundance and diversity.