Effect of Antibiotics on The Gut Microbiota in Children with Chronic Pancreatitis

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about the effect of antibiotic treatment on the gut microbiota in children with chronic pancreatitis (CCP). Our objective was to identify the effect of antibiotic treatment on the gut microbiota in children with chronic pancreatitis (CCP), the main gut microbiota genera and characterize the patients’ functional mutations after using antibiotics. Methods: The 16S rRNA sequencing method was used to compare the gut microbiota of healthy controls (HCs) with CCP using and not using antibiotics. Results: All CCP demonstrated a significantly reduced alpha diversity of the gut microbiota (P＜0.01). The gut microbiota's alpha diversity and the abundance of genera’s beta diversity did not show statistical differences between the non-antibiotics and antibiotics groups. There were 15 altered genera with common abundance in the non-antibiotics and antibiotics groups compared to the HC group. The area under the curve (AUC) of the top three probiotics, i.e., Faecalibacterium, Eubacterium, and Subdoligranulum, was 0.91. Among the 13 genera altered in the non-antibiotics group, the top three genera were not appropriate as biomarkers for cases receiving antibiotics. Compared to these 13 genera, the differences between the genera and the proportion of gram-positive bacteria in the 17 genera altered only in the antibiotics group were not statistically significant. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that the antibiotics caused alterations in the abundance of certain genera. The enriched functions and the altered gut microbiota in the two groups had their enriched functions. Conclusion: The use of antibiotics affects the gut microbiota of CCP, but the effect of disease on gut microbiota is still obvious, which may help diagnosis and further investigation into the pathogenic mechanisms of CP. Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a persistent fibro-inflammatory process of the pancreas associated with genetic, environmental, and other pathogenic factors. This disease eventually led to the pancreas' irreversible injury and increased risk of pancreatic cancer and impaired mental health [1-3].