Bacterial and fungal communities in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polypsOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Bacterial and fungal communities in the middle meatus of 18 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), including 8 recurrent cases, versus 10 healthy controls.
How was it studied?
Swab samples were collected endoscopically, then sequenced by combined 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing on Illumina MiSeq, with taxonomy assigned via Silva and UNITE databases.
What did they find?
Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria dominated at the phylum level, with Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Sphingomonas as top genera overall. Corynebacterium distinguished healthy controls, while Streptococcus, Moraxella, Rothia, Micrococcus, Gemella and Prevotella distinguished CRSwNP patients. Malassezia was the predominant fungus in all groups, correlating positively with Corynebacterium abundance, while Staphylococcus correlated negatively with Dolosigranulum.
Why it matters
CRSwNP nasal microbiomes show greater inter-individual variation than controls, and reduced Corynebacterium may mark a shift toward a polyp-associated bacterial and fungal community.