Chieng, Catherine CY;
Kong, Qingyang;
Liou, Natasha SY;
Rey, Marina Neira;
Dalby, Katie L;
Jones, Neil;
Khasriya, Rajvinder;
(2025)
Novel Techniques to Unravel Causative Bacterial Ecological Shifts in Chronic Urinary Tract Infection.
Pathogens
, 14
(3)
, Article 299. 10.3390/pathogens14030299.
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Abstract
Chronic urinary tract infection (UTI) presents with protracted lower urinary tract symptoms and elevated urinary leukocyte counts, but its bacterial etiological agents remain obscure. In this cross-sectional investigation, we aimed to unravel the role of the bladder microbiota in chronic UTI pathogenesis by studying the host immune response. Urine samples were collected from healthy controls (HT), chronic UTI patients who had not initiated treatment (PT) and those undergoing treatment (OT), then sorted into white blood cell (WBC) and epithelial cell (EPC) fractions. Bacteria associated with both fractions were identified by chromogenic agar culture coupled with mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA sequencing. Distinct WBC-exclusive bacteria were observed in the healthy population, but this pattern was less obvious in patients, plausibly due to epithelial shedding and breaching of the urothelial barrier. We also described a bacterial fingerprint guided by Escherichia that was able to stratify patients based on symptom severity. Clustering analyses of mean rank changes revealed highly statistically significant upward and downward ecological shifts in communities of bacteria between the healthy and diseased populations. Interestingly, many of the most abundant genera identified in sequencing remained stable when compared between the study cohorts. We concluded that reshuffling of the urinary microbiome, rather than the activity of a single known urinary pathogen, could drive chronic UTI.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Novel Techniques to Unravel Causative Bacterial Ecological Shifts in Chronic Urinary Tract Infection |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/pathogens14030299 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens14030299 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Urinary tract infection; lower urinary tract symptoms; pain; host immune response; urinary leukocytes; chromogenic agar culture; 16S rRNA sequencing; K-means clustering; bladder pain syndrome; painful bladder syndrome |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine > Renal Medicine |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211137 |
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