Ocular conjunctival microbiome profiling in dry eye disease: A case control pilot study

• Published in: Indian journal of ophthalmology Vol. 71; no. 4; pp. 1574 - 1581
• Main Authors: Gupta, Noopur, Chhibber-Goel, Jyoti, Gupta, Yogita, Mukherjee, Souvik, Maitra, Arindam, Sharma, Amit, Tandon, Radhika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 01.04.2023; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer - Medknow; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Edition: 2
• Subjects: 16s rrna; Bacteria; Bacteria - genetics; Case-Control Studies; Causes of; Conjunctiva; Conjunctiva - microbiology; Diagnosis; DNA sequencing; dry eye disease; Dry eye syndromes; Dry Eye Syndromes - diagnosis; Eye diseases; Firmicutes; Health aspects; Humans; Identification and classification; Keratoconjunctivitis; Methods; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms); Nucleotide sequencing; ocular microbiome; ocular surface; Original; Original Article; Pilot Projects; Population studies; rRNA 16S; Tears; India; 16S rRNA; ocular microbiome; dry eye disease; conjunctiva; ocular surface
• ISSN: 0301-4738; 1998-3689; 1998-3689
• DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1756_22

Purpose: Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) or dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial disease that results in discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface. A pilot study was undertaken to determine if there were any major substantial differences in the ocular microbiome in DED patients versus healthy controls. Methods: The bacterial communities residing in the conjunctiva of patients with DED (n = 4) and healthy controls (n = 4) were assessed by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing of the V4-V5 region. Results: The phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes were most dominant and accounted for 97% and 94.5% of all bacterial sequences in patients and controls, respectively. At the genus level, 27 bacterial genera were found with more than two-fold difference between patients and controls. Four of these - Acinetobacter, Corynebacterium, Lactobacillus, and Pseudomonas spp. - dominated the ocular microbiome of all subjects, but were proportionately lower in DED (16.5%) compared to controls (37.7%). Several bacterial genera were found to be unique in DED (34) and controls (24). Conclusion: This pilot study is an attempt to profile the ocular microbiome in patients with DED that demonstrated a higher concentration of microbial DNA compared to controls, with Firmicutes phyla dominating the bacterial population in patients with DED.